Posted by Kat Baier on June 27, 2023 at 1012

Central European University (CEU) Press is pleased to announce the forthcoming publication of three new open access books that have been funded entirely by library members of the Opening the Future (OtF) programme. 

Available soon, the OA books will be freely available online, and can also be bought in print. 

-        Multicultural Cities of the Habsburg Empire, 1880–1914. Imagined Communities and Conflictual Encounters, Catherine Horel.

In this comparative analysis of the societal, ethnic, and cultural diversity in the last decades of the Habsburg Monarchy the author focuses on twelve often overlooked cities: Arad, Bratislava, Brno, Chernivtsi, Lviv, Oradea, Rijeka, Sarajevo, Subotica, Timișoara, Trieste, and Zagreb.

Looking at aspects of everyday life faced by the city inhabitants (associations, schools, economy, and municipal politics) the book avoids any idealization of the monarchy as a paradise of peaceful multiculturalism, and presents the world of the Habsburg cities as a dynamic space full of vitality, emulation, and conflict.

• Author: Catherine Horel

·        ISBN: 978-963-386-289-6

• Format: cloth 

·        Print price: $121.00 / €111.00/ £95.00

• Ebook: available for free as Open Access
• Publication date: 31 July 2023 
• Details: 560 pages
• Relevant for researchers focussing on Urban Studies, European History, Multiculturalism, Cultural Studies and Austro-Hungarian History

-        The Beginnings of Anti-Jewish Legislation. The 1920 Numerus Clausus Law in Hungary, Mária M. Kovács.

The Nazi 1933 Civil Service Law and the 1935 Nuremberg Laws are generally considered the first anti-Jewish decrees in Europe. Mária Kovács convincingly argues that Act XXV of 1920 concerning university enrolment in Hungary can instead be considered one of the first pieces of twentieth century anti-Jewish legislation – if not the very first. The law especially targeted Jews, who represented 6% of the inhabitants yet, until then, about 25% of university students.

The study presents the history of the law, including its amendment in 1928, the re-introduction of the Jewish quota in 1939, and its abolition in 1945. By describing the conditions after the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and the short-lived Hungarian Soviet Republic, Kovács shows in what ways these events, and especially how the numerus clausus law, affected the Jews.

• Author: Mária M. Kovács

·        ISBN: 978-963-386-620-7

• Format: cloth 

·        Print price: $65.00 / €55.00/ £47.00

• Ebook: available for free as Open Access
• Publication date: 30 June 2023 
• Details: 240 pages
• Relevant for researchers focussing on Jewish Studies, Holocaust Studies, Legal History, and 20^th Century History

-        Anti-Fascism in European History. From the 1920s to Today, edited by Jože Pirjevec, Egon Pelikan, Sabrina P. Ramet.

The increasing radicalization of political life in most countries in Europe lends special relevance to studies of the antifascist legacies on the continent. This insightful collection of 19 essays is an in-depth review of antifascism in Slovenia, setting it in the context of related movements elsewhere in Europe, during the interwar period, World War Two, and the post-war decades. The comparative and transnational perspectives advanced by the volume change our understanding of antifascism.

·        Editors: Jože Pirjevec, Egon Pelikan, Sabrina P. Ramet

·        ISBN: 978-963-386-657-3

• Format: cloth 
• Print price: $90.00 / €79.00 / £71.00
• Ebook: available for free as Open Access
• Publication date: 20 July 2023 
• Details: 300 pages

·        Part of series: Studies in Political Radicalization: Historical and Comparative Perspectives

·        Relevant for researchers focussing on comparative history, political ideologies, fascism and totalitarianism. 

All our open access books are made available on Project MUSE, DOAB, Open Research Library, JSTOR, OAPEN, EBSCO, ProQuest and De Gruyter. 

About Opening the Future

Funding for these new OA title comes from the Press’ collective library membership programme Opening the Future, bringing the initiative’s OA output to 15 titles. Opening the Future at CEU Press is a cost-effective way for libraries to increase their digital collections on the history and culture of Central and Eastern Europe and the former communist countries. 

Subscribing libraries get unlimited multi-user access to curated packages of backlist books, with perpetual access after three years. The Press uses membership funds solely to produce new frontlist titles in OA format.

The full list of OA titles funded by our generous member library subscribers can be found at ceup.openingthefuture.net/forthcoming, and the backlist packages to which libraries can subscribe can be found here: ceup.openingthefuture.net/packages.

More information on Opening the Future can be found on the website, or contact Emily Poznanski, CEU Press Director, on PoznanskiE@press.ceu.edu

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