In terms of dynastic and family relations, political agreements between powerful feudal families, and the anarchistic intrigues of anarchistic nobles, Dr. Zimmermann discusses the role of the Burgenland in the history of the Habsburg monarchy. However, he never touches on important aspects of social and economic history. Although an account of military and political events might explain why a particular border region belonged to this or that prince at some time in the past, such information would seem to be of interest mainly to students of local history. The aim of the author, however, was not to write local or regional history but to prove that present-day Burgenland, as well as other territory which still belongs to Hungary, had a peculiar, individual character and a historical destiny which, from the time of the Avar occupation until the twentieth century, was more closely connected with Austria than with Hungary. In a similar statement about Slovakia, the author declares: “A full thousand years of Hungarian rule could not obliterate the living idea of Slovakia.” With these arguments the author is not trying to point out regional differences within a particular country but is attempting to prove the existence of nationalist ideas going back as far as nine hundred or more years.