Being a Historian of Central Europe

The main goal of Historical Studies on Central Europe is to provide an interdisciplinary and international platform for disseminating new findings on Central Europe and enhancing the dialog on it. In this spirit, the editors have decided to launch a series asking prominent scholars of the region: their personal motivations for choosing Central Europe as their field; their view on central questions of methodology, trends, and definition, as well as their opinion on the status of the field. Our first discussant is Pieter M. Judson,1 who currently holds a chair in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century History at the European University Institute in Florence. He is the author of numerous prize winning books on fundamental aspects of Habsburg Central Europe, including Exclusive Revolutionaries. Liberal Politics, Social Experience, and National Identity in the Austrian Empire, 1848–1914 (1996), Guardians of the Nation. Activists on the Language Frontiers of Imperial Austria (2006), and The Habsburg Empire. A New History (2016), with the latter translated into twelve languages. For ten years, Professor Judson has been one of the editors of the Austrian History Yearbook, and currently serves as President of the Central European History Society of North America.