Fin-de-Siècle Vienna: Politics and Culture

A landmark book from one of the original scholars of our time: a magnificent revelation of turn-of-the-century Vienna where out of a crisis of political & social disintegration so much of modern art & thought was born. "Not only is it a splendid exploration of several aspects of early modernism in their political context; it is an indicator of how the discipline of intellectual history is currently practiced by its most able & ambitious craftsmen. It is also a moving vindication of historical study itself, in the face of modernism's defiant suggestion that history is obsolete."--David A. Hollinger, History Book Club Review "Each of [7 separate studies] can be read separately...Yet they are so artfully designed & integrated that one who reads them in order is impressed by the book's wholeness & the momentum of its argument."--Gordon A. Craig, The New Republic "A profound work...on one of the most important chapters of modern intellectual history."-- H.R. Trevor-Roper, NY Times Book Review "Invaluable to the social & political historian...as well as to those more concerned with the arts."-- John Willett, NY Review of Books "A work of original synthesis & scholarship. Engrossing."--Newsweek This edition contains: Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction Politics & the psyche: Schnitzler & Hoffmannsthal The Ringstrasse, its critics & the birth of urban modernism Politics in a new key: an Austrian trio Politics & patricide in Freud's Interpretation of dreams Gustav Klimt: painting & the crisis of the liberal ego The transformation of the garden Explosion in the garden: Kokoschka & Schoenberg Index