The Habsburg Monarchy. The History of the Austrian Empire, the German Confederation, and Austria-Hungary. 1809—1918

The book by British historian Alan J. Taylor is a comprehensive study of the last century of the Habsburg monarchy from the Napoleonic Wars to World War I, allowing for a better understanding of the historical processes occurring not only in the "lands of the Danube valley" but also in Europe as a whole. The author examines the unique nature of the state, which was a collection of hereditary possessions of the House of Habsburg, inhabited by peoples of different languages and religions, describing its political structure and ethnographic composition. Focusing on major historical figures and events, Taylor traces the process of empire unification following the Congress of Vienna, the radical transformations of 1848, the imperial crisis triggered by defeat in the Austro-Prussian War, as well as the rise of the Hungarian national movement and the inevitable disintegration of the empire in 1918.