The title is probably self-explanatory. I'm really interested in learning more about this central european state- really anything from the abolition of the Hapsburg Holy Roman Emperorship to the treaty of trianon (Although some histories after this might be pretty cool). I'm super interested in how this state which spawned from one of europe's greatest dynasties functioned. How it stood against constitutionalism and liberalism and remained an absolutist monarchy and repressive state. How it handled the spring of nations. How it negotiated hungarian minorities and handled Magyar dominance in transylvania. How Austrian rule of lombardy-veneto lead to the risorgimento, with such figures as verdi fomenting italian nationalism in coded messages. I want to know more about how an absolutist state in the 19th and 20th centuries still managed to be such a beacon of culture. Or fringe movements like Austromarxism or Austroslavism (especially as a reaction to russian panslavism)! I suppose I am more interested in a political or cultural history, but I'm having trouble finding good places to look to educate myself. I have managed to find these books, but I'm unsure if any of them are worth it- Central European history isn't my strongest area.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/2YU1UVY45Z87G/ref=cm_wl_huc_title
There are going to be a lot of objectively better works out there, but I think there is an argument to be made for Taylor's The Habsburg Monarchy. He's an older British historian from the 40s and 50s and he didn't cite as much as he should, nor have all of his conclusions gone unchallenged. Matter of fact, I'm sure there are historians out there who would say that his style is simply a product of a bygone era. That being said, I've always been one to argue that we should read the classics along with the most recent scholarship, and if ever there was an English language historian of Central Europe who could be called "classic", A.J.P. Taylor is it.
As an added bonus, where are you going to find footnotes like this in a recent work?