On Many Routes

Internal, European, and Transatlantic Migration in the Late Habsburg Empire

by Annemarie Steidl

Series: Series: Central European Studies

372 Pages, 6.00 x 9.00 in, 15 Illustrations

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9781557539816 | Published: November 2020

$59.99

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9781557539823 | Published: November 2020

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9781557539830 | Published: November 2020

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On Many Routes is about the history of human migration. With a focus on the Habsburg Empire, this innovative work presents an integrated and creative study of spatial mobilities: from short to long term, and intranational and inter-European to transatlantic. Migration was not just relegated to city folk, but likewise was the reality for rural dwellers, and we gain a better understanding of how sending and receiving states and shipping companies worked together to regulate migration and shape populations.

Bringing historical census data, governmental statistics, and ship manifests into conversation with centuries-old migration patterns of servants, agricultural workers, seasonal laborers, peddlers, and artisans—both male and female—this research argues that Central Europeans have long been mobile, that this mobility has been driven by diverse motivations, and that post-1850 transatlantic migration was an obvious extension of earlier spatial mobility patterns. Demonstrating the complexity of human mobility via an exploration of the links between overseas, continental, and internal migrations, On Many Routes shows that migrations to the United States, to the nearest coalfield, and to the urban capitals are embedded within complicated patterns of movement. There is no good reason to study internal apart from transnational moves, and combining these fields brings ample possibility to make migration research more relevant for the much broader field of social and economic history. This work poses an invaluable resource to the understudied area of Habsburg Empire migration studies, which it relocates within its wider European context and provides a major methodological contribution to the history of human migration more broadly. The ubiquity and functionality of human movement sheds light on the relationship between human nature and society, and challenges simplistic notions of human mobility then and now.

“Mobility scholars know humans move over varied distances. Steidl’s On Many Routes is the rare, wonderful study that reveals linkages among local, regional, intracontinental, transcontinental, and international migrations. Suddenly, we see migration systems as both much larger and much smaller than individual nations or empires.” —Donna R. Gabaccia, Professor Emerita, University of Toronto

"There are only a few studies that systematically link regional, national, international, and intercontinental migrations. And only very few that study the decisions of migrants against the background of dramatic changes in state formation and nation-building. This highly original book on the breaking up of the Habsburg Empire does just that." —Leo Lucassen, Director of the International Institute of Social History

"A conceptual and methodological tour de force. Steidl's examination of migrations within the Habsburg Empire, between its Austrian and Hungarian sectors, to the rest of Europe, North Africa, and the Americas makes this book one of the most integrated and holistic studies of mobility anywhere. A major contribution to the history of Central Europe and of human migration." —José C. Moya, Director of the Forum on Migration, Columbia University

"By highlighting the connections between internal and external migrations, Annemarie Steidl provides one of the most holistic depictions of human mobility within and without politically negotiated borders. The contribution of this volume to the field of Central European studies is even more crucial because it fills a significant gap in the study of the Habsburg Empire. Given the number of difficulties involved in finding appropriate numerical data for a project of this nature, the author does a remarkable job. As a whole, the book makes a rich and important contribution to Habsburg and Austrian history because it fills several gaps in our understanding of the empire. The Habsburg Empire emerges in the pages of On Many Routes not as a static monolith but as a dynamic conglomerate of moving, living, and working communities." —Austrian History Yearbook

"Focusing on the case study of the Habsburg Empire in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, [Steidl] provides an innovative and meticulous study which convincingly shows that human mobility should be studied, and is best understood when different migration patterns (long-term and short-term, seasonal and permanent, domestic and international) are explored not as separate and independent from one another, but rather as integrated migration systems. The book is a great achievement which will be of interest to scholars well beyond those working on the Habsburg Empire and on European migration in the period from the late nineteenth century until World War One as analyzed in the book. [Steidl]’s compelling and rigorous analysis will be read with great profit by anyone who has an interest in empirical and methodological aspects of migration research in any time and space. " —Journal of East Central European Studies

"What Steidl does best is to illustrate how interconnected the phenomena of local migration, international migration to a neighboring state, and transatlantic migration were. This is a tremendously important thing for all scholars of human migration to understand and incorporate into their own work." —Journal of Austrian Studies