The Dissolution of the Habsburg Monarchy

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Borodino Books, Sep 3, 2018 - History - 551 pages
The main factor which destroyed the Habsburg Monarchy was the problem of nationality and its dissolution was hastened, but not caused, by World War I. Oscar Jászi spent twenty years studying the dangers that threatened this monarchy but his practical plans for averting these dangers were not given a hearing until it was too late. This book was the culmination of Mr. Jászi’s theoretical and practical activity and was enthusiastically received when first published in 1929.

“It is not only effective and dramatic narrative, it is also political science of the first order.”—Harold J. Laski

“The work is a liberal education in Central European politics.”—Henry C. Alsberg, The Nation

“There have been many books written on the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but there is none which goes so deeply into the causes...in this pitiless yet pitiful analysis, rigorously buttressed with statistics, the tragedy is described without bitterness but with deep feeling.”—The Manchester Guardian

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About the author (2018)

Oscar Jászi (March 2, 1875 - February 13, 1957) was a Hungarian social scientist, historian, and politician.

Born Oszkár Jakobuvits in Nagykároly, Austria-Hungary (today Carei, Romania), Jászi’s family converted from Judaism to Calvinism in 1881 and changed their name to Jászi. He studied political science at the University of Budapest and was awarded a diploma as Doctor of Political Science in 1896. He joined the Department of Economics in the Ministry of Agriculture as a drafting clerk, remaining there for a decade. In 1899 he co-founded a new periodical titled Huszadik Század (Twentieth Century), and the Sociological Society in 1901.

His book Art and Morality was published in 1904, and Jászi planned to embark on a university career. However, his focus shifted towards politics, and establishing a socialist party that would simultaneously appeal to Hungarian nationalism. He moved to Paris for 6 months in January 1905, where he became acquainted with French academic and political life. He returned to Hungary in the midst of a constitutional crisis, with the Emperor-King Franz Josef appointing Field Marshal Baron Géza Fejérváry as prime minister and the opposition calling for national resistance. In August 1905, Jászi co-founded a League for Universal Suffrage by Secret Ballot, marking the beginning of his political career. He resigned from the Ministry of Agriculture in 1906.

In 1908 Jászi became associated with Freemasonry and was appointed head of a separate lodge, a connection which linked Hungary Freemasonry with progressive change. In 1910 he was appointed Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Kolozsvár.

Jászi emigrated to the U.S. in 1925 and joined the faculty of Oberlin College, where he settled down to a career as a history professor and wrote a series of books, the best known of which is The Dissolution of the Habsburg Monarchy, first published in 1929.

He died in Oberlin, Ohio in 1957, aged 81.

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