ABSTRACT
Austria-Hungary and the nineteenth-century liberal era Those who lived through the Great War and then experienced the rise of political and economic collectivism in the years following 1918 often had a deep nostalgia for the epoch that came to an end in 1914. They looked back at that earlier liberal era with remembrance of a time of international peace, growing economic prosperity, and wide respect for the liberty of the individual. There was a sense that man, before the opening shots of those guns of August in 1914, had freed himself from the old political and social superstitions of the past; and with all of his very human frailties was on the path of slow but certain improvement. For example, in 1934, the famous British historian, G.P. Gooch, expressed this nostalgia with a lament about the world in which he now lived:
Only men and women who, like myself, were adult citizens at the turn of the [twenthieth] century can realize the enormous contrast between the years preceding and following the World War. I grew to manhood in an age of sensational progress and limitless self-confidence. Civilization was spreading across the earth with giant strides; science was tossing us miracle after miracle; wealth was accumulating at a pace undreamed of in earlier generations; the amenities of life were being brought within the range of an ever greater number of our fellow-creatures . . . There was a robust conviction that we were on the right track; that man was a teachable animal who would work out his salvation if given his chance; that the nations were on the march toward a larger freedom and a fuller humanity; that difficulties could be taken in their stride . . . Some of the ruling conceptions of the time, such as national and political liberty, equality before the law, religious toleration and a minimum standard of life, were the ripe fruit of a long process of evolution . . . No one spoke of a possible return to the Dark Ages or wondered whether we could keep civilization afloat. We realize today that we were living in a fool’s paradise . . . The Europe that emerged from the four years of carnage contrasted sensationally from that which we had known . . . Half of Europe is ruled by dictators who scoff at democracy and trample human rights under their feet. Meanwhile the Communists look on with grim satisfaction awaiting their hour.1
