This introductory chapter reflects on the conceptual building blocks of the book: transnationalism, virile imperialism, the hybrid media–political system, celebrity politics, and participation in the political. It then describes the imperialist political figures – Wilhelm II, Bernhard von Bülow, Joseph Chamberlain, Cecil Rhodes, Leopold II, and Theodore Roosevelt – media events, and digital and analogue media and political sources that form the backbone of the book. The chapter introduces the argument that the hybrid media ensemble around 1900 created a new type of ‘publicity politician’ operating in a system of ‘transnational media politics’. In this system of media politics, the publicity politician placed media management at the centre of politics and gained hitherto-unimaginable visibility on the world stage. This mass mediation broadened political participation – and thereby politics itself. Yet this democratic participation through media simultaneously jeopardized democratic participation through institutions, as representative parliaments had to vie for media attention with these media-savvy and mediagenic publicity politicians. The concepts of the publicity politician and transnational media politics transform our understanding of politics around 1900. These fin-de-siècle publicity politicians, in turn, are essential for comprehending the relationship between media and personalized politics in subsequent times – including today.

Hungary was by far the largest constituent part of the Habsburg Monarchy, and a considerable European state in its own right. The relationship between the Habsburg ruler and Hungary’s assertive, noble-dominated estates was characterized by a traditional duality between “crown” and “country” which limited the monarch’s ability to raise taxes and mobilize resources. Maria Theresia (1740–1780) skillfully managed this system, while her radical son, Joseph II (1780–90) openly challenged it. He introduced a blizzard of reforms in pursuit of an efficient and unified Habsburg state. His uncompromising reform drive provoked resistance, verging on open revolt by the end of his reign. This chapter argues that effective resistance to Josephist absolutism originated in a group of disillusioned Hungarian officeholders and that these cannot simply be dismissed as dyed in the wool conservatives. Under the new ruler, Leopold II (1790–2) a compromise was reached: the traditional duality was restored and the bulk of the Josephist reform programme was jettisoned. Nonetheless, three key reforms were incorporated which helped to unify the Hungarian élite and made the country, and ultimately the Habsburg Monarchy, better able to face the challenge of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.