Pieter M. Judson is Professor of Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century History at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy.

A significant contribution to the literature on the Habsburg Empire, its successor states, and German nationalism, Guardians of the Nation provides a useful antidote to misleading interpretations of the Empire as a 'nationalist quagmire.' Judson's lively, engaging, and witty writing makes this book not only a pleasure to read but also easily accessible. His argument, that even in an age of widespread nationalist rhetoric many people continued to be nationally indifferent or ambivalent, will be controversial. But his conclusions are so well documented and convincingly presented that many a skeptic will be forced to rethink how nationalism worked in central Europe and, more importantly, how it did not work.

• Preface Note on Language Use Maps 1. Introduction 2. Constructing an Imagined Frontier: Schoolhouse Fortresses 3. Encounters on the Rural Language Frontier 4. Reluctant Colonists on the Frontier: The Sudmark Settlers 5. Tourists to the Frontier: Consumption and National Identity 6. Violence in the Frontier Village 7. Language Frontier and Nation State Abbreviations Notes Index

Pieter M. Judson is Professor of Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century History at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy.

A significant contribution to the literature on the Habsburg Empire, its successor states, and German nationalism, Guardians of the Nation provides a useful antidote to misleading interpretations of the Empire as a 'nationalist quagmire.' Judson's lively, engaging, and witty writing makes this book not only a pleasure to read but also easily accessible. His argument, that even in an age of widespread nationalist rhetoric many people continued to be nationally indifferent or ambivalent, will be controversial. But his conclusions are so well documented and convincingly presented that many a skeptic will be forced to rethink how nationalism worked in central Europe and, more importantly, how it did not work.

• Preface Note on Language Use Maps 1. Introduction 2. Constructing an Imagined Frontier: Schoolhouse Fortresses 3. Encounters on the Rural Language Frontier 4. Reluctant Colonists on the Frontier: The Sudmark Settlers 5. Tourists to the Frontier: Consumption and National Identity 6. Violence in the Frontier Village 7. Language Frontier and Nation State Abbreviations Notes Index

Pieter M. Judson is Professor of Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century History at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy.

A significant contribution to the literature on the Habsburg Empire, its successor states, and German nationalism, Guardians of the Nation provides a useful antidote to misleading interpretations of the Empire as a 'nationalist quagmire.' Judson's lively, engaging, and witty writing makes this book not only a pleasure to read but also easily accessible. His argument, that even in an age of widespread nationalist rhetoric many people continued to be nationally indifferent or ambivalent, will be controversial. But his conclusions are so well documented and convincingly presented that many a skeptic will be forced to rethink how nationalism worked in central Europe and, more importantly, how it did not work.

• Preface Note on Language Use Maps 1. Introduction 2. Constructing an Imagined Frontier: Schoolhouse Fortresses 3. Encounters on the Rural Language Frontier 4. Reluctant Colonists on the Frontier: The Sudmark Settlers 5. Tourists to the Frontier: Consumption and National Identity 6. Violence in the Frontier Village 7. Language Frontier and Nation State Abbreviations Notes Index