Fin-De-Siecle Vienna: Politics and Culture (Pulitzer Prize Winner) Paperback – December 12, 1980

Schorske's was the seminal book that put urban culture of the turn of the century, or the fin de sciecle, on the map. It documented the premier role Vienna played in creating a modern culture. Since then cultured tourism can indulge in the opulence of Vienna both in terms of architecture and pastries and at the same time fake the impression of having an eye only on the austerity of Modernism. The book contains a loose string of essays dealing with the building of the stage like Ring boulevard and the political and artistic life of the most influential city for modernity with names like Freud, Klimt, Schiele, Loos or Schoenberg who performed on this stage. He omits Mahler for no discernable reason other than that he has written an independently about him. The history of Vienna at the fin de sciecle reads like the history of modern culture and how it eventually fell into the abyss. But it also reminds of the pitfalls of today. What finally undid Vienna was perhaps more the jockeying for position of various interest groups and their lack for a willingness of practical compromise somewhat reminiscent of today's veto-cracy in the US. Schorske's is a wonderfully academic book with complex concepts and the language to go with them. Somewhat differently focused on art and science is The Age of Insight: The Quest to Understand the Unconscious in Art, Mind, and Brain, from Vienna 1900 to the Present. For a more fleshed out treatise there are the touching documentary type story Good Living Street: Portrait of a Patron Family, Vienna 1900. A story of Vienna 1900, told in a more titillating style, is Thunder At Twilight: Vienna 1913/1914.

I'm a fairly sophisticated reader with an educational background that makes me the almost perfect audience for this book. The information and analysis are great, but even in more serious works we have come to expect engaging prose. I will keep reading, but this is an unnecessarily hard slog. Beware readers of popular history. This is not for you.

Reading Schorske is like riding a time machine to Vienna around the tumultuous late 1800s to 1900. He covers an electic array of topics. However, he has a central focus: to show the radical changes and interconnection between arts & politics at the turn of the century vienna (fin de siecle). But, be warned, Schorske is an intellectual historian, and though his exposition is easy to read, his themes are academic and copiously detailed.Schorske first lays out the setting of a growing city. He describes the monumental architectural project of the Ringstrasse (the Ring Street around central Vienna) and the rising liberalism and shifting wealth this represented.The more interesting, and key, episode of the book involves the reactions to this change in Austria, in the form of new politics, anti-semitism, Zionism, and of the ramifications in Arts, Sciences and Music. Specifically, Schorske writes about transformations of viennese politicians, medical doctor Sigmund Freud, artist Gustav Klimt, and musician Arnold Shoenberg. The "vignettes" of these figures are academic and marvelously entertaining. What's surprising is how closely these key figures in 20th century intellectual development were connected; Vienna was a small city, after all. As I said, you'll feel like you're walking through the bustling streets of Vienna, and spotting Freud or Mahler (though Schoerske doesn't cover Mahler) on a leisurely stroll.

Some years ago I read Stefan Zweig's book about Vienna. I couldn't put it down. This book on the other hand is heavy going. It is a real eye-opener that reveals the ugly truth under the glittery surface that one - I at least - still associate with Vienna. Everyone should read this book because it helps to understand what is going on in Europe right now, after all these years. It's easy but unfair to judge a 19th century person. They didn't know about political correctness and other modern goodies that we have to contend with.

Schorske has pulled off a landmark study of Viennese life on the eve of World War 1. By dividing the book into essays, he is able to dive deeply into a key facet of Viennese culture while simultaneously painting a larger picture of Austrian life. Hence the death of liberalism, the rise of proto-fascism, and the displacement of the middle class are fully contextualized in art, politics, architecture, and literature of the period. A great achievement. It is interesting to see the complexity of language employed by an academic work from the early 80s. They definitely don’t write them like this anymore.

The book was sent in perfect condition

I like this book! It gives me endless ruminations and thought out insights using the work of psychoanalysis to explain and explicate the subject matter- Vienna at the turn of the last century. This fits extremely well considering that psychoanalysis erupted form that very place at that very time. The life of Vienna, in its myriad forms, can be well understood via psychoanalysis - in many ways modern Vienna too is still a psychoanalytic trove - this book needs slow and careful reading; it will need more than one "going-over". Highly recommended - but if you are opposed to psychoanalysis...keep away! Be warned!

This book treats end of century Vienna from a number of different angles, all of interest and important. It is well organized in different sections such as architecture and how it developed in Vienna, the political figures who influenced events in those years and the large final section on the arts in Vienna with a wonderful selection of photos illustrating the famous artists works. I learned many new facts and it brought together much of what I have already read on the subject. I would recommend it as a reference work that complements other books such as Zweig.s World of Yesterday.

Trata-se de um clássico da história da ideia e da cultura, que recupera com rara felicidade o contexto social e a trajetória de diversos inovadores das artes, ciência, arquitetura com sensibilidade e precisão. O livro é ricamente ilustrado e extremamente bem redigido. Foi com enorme prazer que reli este excelente livro após mais de 20 anos da minha primeira leitura.

A fascinating, informative, and well written book.

Deberían ustedes permitir que se valore una obra sin necesidad de tener que escribir un comentario, con la complicación añadida de tener que añadir un titular. Que lo escriba solo el que quiera

Das Standardwerk über die Kulturgeschichte Wiens um 1900 anhand der Werke und Biographien zentraler Personen wie Klimt, Hofmannsthal, Lueger, Herzl, Kokoschka, Schönberg, ...