What is Austro-Hungarian History to the Eurasianist?

Abstract:The cohesiveness of European history has been undermined in recent years. New studies have exposed the inadequacy of its master narratives: much of what we thought was the "European model" best described England, France, and Germany. The Habsburg Empire, once confined to playing the cradle of nationalism, proved central to processes like international law and economic thought. This paper makes a modest proposal toward rectification. It proposes a research design for producing new master narratives. Instead of writing scholarly syntheses and research direction climaxes, this method explores systematic, macro-level comparisons as a way to generate new questions and see Austria-Hungary anew.