The Idea of America in Austrian Political Thought

Between 1870 and 1960, the United States of America and Austria experienced two diametrically opposite political paths. While America centralized after a Civil War and emerged as an imperial power at the turn of the century, Austria, one of Europe's largest empires at the end of the 19th century, saw itself cut off from its breadbasket in Hungary, its industrial center in Bohemia, and its seaports in the Balkans. Against this backdrop of a dying empire observing a nascent one, this work examines the discourse through which prominent members of the Austrian, and especially Viennese, intellectual elite imagined the United States, and attempts to determine which patterns emerged in that discourse. By analyzing the interpretations of the intellectual community of fin de sicle Vienna regarding the great American political experiment, this book seeks to discover what, precisely, the U.S. means to the world beyond its borders. This book will benefit all those interested in the political, economic, social, and historical development of both Austria and America.