Reconstructing a National Identity: The Jews of Habsburg Austria During World War I

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Oxford University Press, 2004 - History - 252 pages
This book explores the impact of war and political crisis on the national identity of Jews, both in the multinational Habsburg monarchy and in the new nation-states that replaced it at the end of World War I. Jews enthusiastically supported the Austrian war effort because it allowed them to assert their Austrian loyalties and Jewish solidarity at the same time. They faced a grave crisis of identity when the multinational state collapsed and they lived in nation-states mostly uncomfortable with ethnic minorities. This book raises important questions about Jewish identity and about the nature of ethnic and national identity in general.

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Contents

Introduction
3
The Jews of AustriaHungary on the Eve of World War I
14
Austrian Jews and the Spirit of 1914
39
Patriotic War Work
59
The Experience of Jewish Soldiers
82
Clinging to the Old Identity 19161918
106
The Dissolution of the Monarchy and the Crisis of Jewish Identity
128
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About the author (2004)

Marsha L. Rozenblit is at University of Maryland, College Park.