http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/837015935

The undermining of Austria-Hungary the battle for hearts and minds

This is a study of the lively battle of ideas which helped to destroy the Habsburg Empire during the First World War. Mark Cornwall examines Austria-Hungary's dissolution through the prism of 'front propaganda': the use of propaganda as a weapon of warfare against the enemy. He shows that it was wielded with particular skill on the Italian and Eastern Fronts in three major propaganda campaigns which involved Austria-Hungary. The most sophisticated was Italy's campaign of 1918 which, in appealing to the 'oppressed peoples' of the Empire, acted as a catalyst upon domestic disintegration. The Habsburg authorities failed to find an attractive alternative to counter such ideas; indeed, their own behaviour had alienated many of their imperial subjects since 1914. As a result, in the struggle for hearts and minds later in the war they were always at a disadvantage. Basing his work on solid archival research in Vienna, Budapest and Zagreb, the author uses material in eight languages to uncover many new features of the Great War. In particular, he challenges assumptions about Britain's leading role in the field of wartime propaganda, while explaining much about Austria-Hungary's disintegration.

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