From the ashes of empire, the nation rose on a wave of idealism. That, at least, is the standard tale. Dominique Reill argues that empire retained many supporters after 1919. Investigating the post-WWI crisis in multicultural, urbane Fiume, she finds that the stories of empire’s cosmopolitans have been overwritten by the triumph of nationalism.

[An] excellent example of how modern historians are adding texture to our understanding of 20th-century Europe…The colorful story of Fiume has indeed been told before, but never with so many fresh and fascinating insights as Reill provides.

Reill’s depiction of the local, enriched by massive research in Rijeka’s archives (and some at the Vittoriale [degli Italiani]), is a delight…One of the pleasures of Reill’s work is its inclusion of period photographs…Throughout the book, Reill paints deft portraits of people and events.

So important…By looking at the ways in which the grandiose D’Annunizian rhetorical flourishes were translated into pragmatic everyday life solutions, Reill opens up an important conversation on What Is History and Who Gets to Write It…With the rigor of a scholar and the artistry of a bard, she finds not just a story to represent the complexities of speaking local problems into a larger global conversation. She finds the story, the case study, the Martin Guerre who articulates a worldview.

An important addition to a hitherto neglected area of Habsburg studies, by helping to disrupt the common wisdom…Brilliantly written…A path-breaking contribution in reconsidering the imperial transitions in twentieth-century Europe.

As this impeccably researched and engagingly written book demonstrates, the Habsburg monarchy’s afterlife is often as interesting as its proper history.

A superb book, smartly conceived and beautifully written. With a genius for unearthing fascinating stories of local people, then using them to illuminate larger issues, Reill forces us to reconsider in profound ways how we conceive the history of the immediate postwar period in Europe. This history from below questions stale nationalist certainties and depicts vividly how communities worked to create their own options in a challenging postwar world.

The Fiume Crisis offers a fundamentally new way of thinking about war and postwar rebuilding. By zooming in to a specific city at the crossroads of many different pasts and multiple possible futures, Reill provides a fresh perspective on who makes history happen—bilingual cabbage sellers and young schoolteachers, emigré lawyers and seductive dockworkers—all those who tried to create a city that could escape the ravages of war and economic devastation. Their creativity and vision, triumphs and failures come alive in this breathtaking story.

In this fascinating and important book Reill transforms our understanding of both the Fiume crisis and the whole geopolitical metamorphosis of Europe that followed World War I. She shows that the struggle over the city between Italy and Yugoslavia reflected a much deeper and more complex history of Adriatic identities in a Habsburg and post-Habsburg context.

A magisterial account of everyday life in the multi-ethnic city of Fiume after the end of the Great War. Moving well beyond the familiar story of the soldier-poet Gabriele D’Annunzio and his occupation of Fiume, Reill succeeds in telling the fascinating story of how a city of considerable cultural complexity dealt with the challenges of being a small successor state in a post-imperial world.

A brilliant reevaluation of the nationalist myths and legends that have grown up around the history of Fiume under Gabriele D’Annunzio. Shifting our gaze away from his charismatic personality to the experiences of the citizens of Fiume, Reill demonstrates the persistence of imperial loyalties underpinning their quest for greater autonomy. This book forces us to question what we think we know about the relationship between nationalism and empire in the aftermath of the First World War.

In this gem of a book, Reill peels away the sensational stories that made Fiume notorious as both a diplomatic thorn in Woodrow Wilson’s peacemaking and the prancing ground of proto-fascist Gabriele D’Annunzio, revealing a more thrilling, politically meaningful history. In the plucky polyglot city’s colliding authorities, crazy quilt laws, and contradictory wants, Reill vividly captures the human comedy as well as the shoals on which hopes for the Great Peace to follow the Great War foundered.

Reill offers a new interpretation of Fiume…Will surely be one of the most, if not the most influential monograph on Fiume in years to come…Impressive in its thoroughness.

Reill seeks to show how ordinary Fiumians navigated this period of crisis in the history of their city…Her research reveals their pragmatism as they tried to make the best of their new position as an isolated city-state in the age of nations.

[A] crucial new study…A thorough and convincing portrait of a city striving to come to terms with the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian empire and find its way in an evolving political landscape…Reill has produced a compelling analysis of how fundamental day-to-day issues such as currency, legal codes, citizenship, and school curriculums were dealt with in the city. This is a scrupulous, sober, history from below that is essential in a context such as d’Annunzio’s Fiume, which was all about imposing an image from above.

Engaging…Readers will finish this book enthusiastic about Fiume. But they will also come away with new insights into the creative ways that Europeans tackled the aftermath of World War I on the ground…Reill highlights the importance of considering both the imperial and the local if we want to understand the end of World War I or the mapping of interwar Europe.

Particularly relevant to historians of Habsburg Europe, while challenging standard accounts of modern Italian history. The history of interwar Fiume is much more than an Italian story, more than the prehistory of Italian Fascism. Extremely erudite, well-written, and illustrated with many astonishing photographs.

An important contribution to the burgeoning literature on post-1918 Europe and the debate on continuities between empires and nation-states…This accomplished study invites further discussion and research on a key moment in European history.

Dominique Kirchner Reill is Professor of Modern European History at the University of Miami and author of the award-winning Nationalists Who Feared the Nation: Adriatic Multi-Nationalism in Habsburg Dalmatia, Trieste, and Venice.