Education and middle-class society in imperial Austria, 1848-1918

by Gary B. Cohen

The development of Austrian society in the nineteenth century was beset by enormous difficulties, including sharp social-class differences, an economic base that was developing all too slowly and unevenly, and, distinct from most of Western and Central Europe, a multiplicity of competing ethnic and religious groups. Against this backdrop, Education and Middle-Class Society in Imperial Austria, 1848-1918 - the first English-language book on the topic - examines Austria's educational system, which Gary B. Cohen characterizes as one of the major accomplishments of government and civil society under the Habsburg Monarchy in its last decades. By 1910 Austria's secondary schools, technical colleges, and universities, pushed by a growing popular demand and pressures from local governments and interest groups, enrolled percentages of the school-aged population that roughly equaled, and sometimes exceeded, those in Germany. The rising social and political competition of Austria's ethnic and rel