Vienna: A Cultural History

by Nicholas Parsons

Overview

From border garrison of the Roman Empire to magnificent Baroque seat of the Hapsburgs, Vienna's fortunes swung between survival and expansion. By the late nineteenth century it had become the western capital of the sprawling Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, but the twentieth century saw it degraded to a 'hydrocephalus' cut off from its former economic hinterland. After the inglorious Nazi interlude, Vienna began the long climb back to the prosperous and cultivated city of 1.7 million inhabitants that it is today. Subjected to constant infusions of new, Vienna has both assimilated and resisted cultural influences from outside, creating its own sui generis culture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195376074
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	12/16/2008
Series:	Cityscapes
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	1,141,550
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Nicholas Parsons is the author of Blue Guides to Vienna and Austria, and 'Worth the Detour': A History of the Guidebook.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Neal Acheson Part I: The Capua of Minds Vienna Preserved: the Palimpsest Vienna Liberata: Civic Pride and the Metropolis How to be Viennese Masters and Servants: a Tale of Cognitive Dissonance Love-Hate and Austromasochism Clichés and the Art of Self-Irony Backing into the Future Part II: The Spirit of Place Viennese Topography Notes on Wienerisch and Wienerlieder The Death Cult in Vienna The Life of the Phaeacians Part III: The Ages of the City The Romans on the Danube Light at the End of the Tunnel The Early Habsburgs Humanism, Refofrmation and Counter-Reformation Baroque Vienna The Enlightenment in Vienna Biedermeier Vienna From Revolution to Ringstrasse Fin-de-siècle Vienna Republics and Dictatorships Epilogue: Bernhard and Jellinek Further Reading