Az Osztrák–Magyar Monarchia az I. világháború centenáriumának angolszász történeti szakirodalmában
Austria–Hungary in the First World War – in the Recent English Language Scholarly Literature

Summary/Abstract: The recent English and German historical literature about the role of Austria–Hungary in the First World War is reviewed by the present paper. In the first year of the centenary this work attempts to summarize the interpretations of the origins of the war, to highlight some notions about the historical responsibility between the belligerent countries, last but not least to enlarge upon the so called thesis of decline of the Dual Monarchy. Special attention is paid to the historical literature published in the last twenty to twenty five years including the newest hotly debated monographs from the last two–three years as well. As for the origins of the war, not only the long-term origins such as the contractual obligations of the alliances, militarism, imperialism and nationalism, but the short-term causes like the role of press, the deficiencies of the international relations, the coterie of decision makers are evaluated. The events and decisions of the July Crisis 1914 are also in the focus of the study. According to some historians the thesis of the long, organic decline of the Habsburg Monarchy is to be revisited. Until now the historical picture of an anachronistic multinational polity has been transferred by the general treatments in the English literature, although recent research carried out during the last thirty to forty years in many respects altered this old view. Consequently, the communication gap between historical syntheses and the results of special studies from different fields of historical disciplines is high time to be closed on the centenary of this seminal catastrophe of the 20th century.

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