Audible States: Socialist Politics and Popular Music in Albania

Abstract

more bureaucrats as entirely reasonable. Deak concludes with a fascinating account of the Commission for the Promotion of Administrative Reform (1911–14), which collected, and published, a vast compendium of data on how the imperial bureaucracy actually worked, and how it might be made more efficient. The Commission’s findings were shelved on the outbreak of the First World War, but predictably the one thing the bureaucrats never suggested was fewer bureaucrats. Deak takes all this Vielschreiberei as evidence of statebuilding: ‘This was hardly a weak, decrepit state’ (p. 273). This reviewer is not so sure. Granted, had the Monarchy’s leaders not gone to war in 1914, who knows how much stronger and more modern the state might have been made? But the fact remains that the Monarchy did go to war, and under the hammer blows of a conflict that tested the loyalty of multiple nationalities to the limit, everything in the end fell apart. Deak acknowledges (p. 274) that ‘states are fragile things’; despite the growing size of its bureaucracy, the Monarchy was clearly more fragile than most. On the technical side, although Deak’s style is engaging, it seems none of Stanford’s editors has the skills to spot neologisms like ‘knightage’ (p. 150), ‘councilmen’ (p. 154) and ‘dismantlement’ (p. 113). Map 4 (p. 168) contains an egregious error regarding the Sanjak of Novi Pazar. Most annoying, however, is the absence of a bibliography. This is a false economy in any academic publication; if this rewarding book goes into a subsequent edition, the author should insist on inclusion of this essential scholarly courtesy.