Title: Workers and nationalism : Czech and German social democracy in Habsburg Austria, 1890-1918 /
Authors: Beneš, Jakub S.
Year: 2017
Subjects: Nationalism Austria History; Working class Austria History.; Nationalism Austria History; Nationalism Austria History; Socialism Austria History; Socialism Austria History; Austria History; Austria Politics and government
Abstract: Internationalist socialism and ethnic nationalism are usually thought of as polar opposites. But for the millions of men and women who made Social Democracy into twentieth-century Europe's most potent political force, they were often mutually reinforcing. 'Workers and Nationalism' explains this apparent paradox by looking at the history of the Social Democratic workers' movement in Habsburg Austria, which was built on the mobilization of German and Czech workers in the Empire's rapidly industrializing regions of Bohemia, Moravia, and Lower Austria. Jakub Benes takes the history of socialism out of the realm of theoretical and parliamentary debates and into the streets, city squares, pubs, and clubs of a vibrant but precarious multi-ethnic society. He reveals how ordinary workers became increasingly nationalist as they came to believe that they were the genuine representatives of their ethnic national communities. Their successful campaign to democratize parliamentary elections in 1905-1907 accelerated such thinking rapidly. It also split Social Democracy apart by 1911. Then, during the First World War, many Czech and German workers embraced revolutionary radicalism, alienating them from the regime-friendly socialist leadership. Benes's study is the first to show the profound connection between major political events and the rich culture of the Austrian workers' movement, revealing this culture's utopian and quasi-religious tendencies as well as its left populist nationalism. Based on research in eight archives and numerous libraries in Prague, Vienna, and Brno, 'Workers and Nationalism' fundamentally rethinks the relationship between socialism, nationalism, and democracy in modern Europe.
Contents: Narrating socialism in Habsburg Austria. Building a poetic organization -- The path of Christ -- Exclusion from the nation. Social exclusion in space -- Everyday ethnicity and workers' internationalism -- Exclusion from the ranks of the Staatsvolk -- Exclusion from the unified Národ -- 1897 and beyond -- Storms of November. Suffrage as revolutionary utopia -- The argument of the streets -- Seizing the nation -- Coda : May 1907 -- Socialist Hussites, Marxist Wagnerians. The most national party -- Genuine Schillerfeste -- Edifying working-class nations -- Returns to Lipany -- Völkisch visions and rising resentment -- The logics of separatism. A nation on the advance -- Working apart -- Learning apart -- The vices of large nations -- Class ethos remains.