Catherine Horel in Budapest!
What do Arad, Bratislava, Brno, Chernivtsi, Lviv, Oradea, Rijeka, Sarajevo, Subotica, Timișoara, Trieste, and Zagreb have in common? These cities were all part of the Habsburg Monarchy. Acclaimed author, Catherine Horel, looks behind the historical view of peaceful multiculturalism to show the challenges in education, religion, languages, politics and culture in these urban landscapes.
Don't miss the book launch on 21 March at 17:00 at CEU Budapest where the celebrated historian will discuss her open access book Multicultural Cities of the Habsburg Empire 1881-1914 Imagined Communities and Conflictual Encounters with Professor Gábor Gyáni.
Time and venue:
21 March 2024 17:00
CEU Budapest
Faculty Tower
Old Library
Reception to follow.
About the book:
Catherine Horel has undertaken a comparative analysis of the societal, ethnic, and cultural diversity in the last decades of the Habsburg Monarchy as represented in twelve cities: Arad, Bratislava, Brno, Chernivtsi, Lviv, Oradea, Rijeka, Sarajevo, Subotica, Timișoara, Trieste, and Zagreb. By purposely selecting these cities, the author aims to counter the disproportionate attention that the largest cities in the empire receive.
With a focus on the aspects of everyday life faced by the city inhabitants (associations, schools, and municipal politics) the book avoids any idealization of the monarchy as a paradise of peaceful multiculturalism, and also avoids exaggerating conflicts. The author claims that the world of the Habsburg cities was a dynamic space where many models coexisted and created vitality, emulation, and conflict. Modernization brought about the dissolution of old structures, but also mobility, the progress of education, the explosion of associative life, and constantly growing cultural offerings.
You can download the book here.
About the Catherine Horel:
Catherine Horel is a Director of Research at the CNRS (Sirice UMR 8138). A specialist in Modern Central European History, she teaches at the University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. She is a member of numerous international organizations, as well as the secretary general of the Comité international des sciences historiques (CISH). Her research explores the sociopolitical structures of the Hapsburg Empire, urban history, and the history of the Jews.