“[This book] is an unstoppable force of scholarship. It holds itself to an extremely high standard of analytical and empirical rigor, and it delivers again and again in both regards. Every library should purchase this monograph, as should scholars interested in the fields of Habsburg studies, urban history, gender studies, and/or labor history… Combining the methods of cultural, social, and legal history—all backed by an impressive array of qualitative and quantitative sources—Natarajan provides a powerful example of how history ought to be done.” • German Studies Review

“Natarajan challenges the existing scholarship and reconsiders the roles of female domestic workers not merely as subservient figures but as active participants in the economy and in the society. She thus sheds light on broader issues of autonomy, agency, and social changes.” • Hungarian Historical Review

In nineteenth century Cisleithanian Austria, poor, working-class women underwent mass migrations from the countryside to urban centers for menial or unskilled labor jobs. Through legal provisions on women’s work in the Habsburg Empire, there was an increase in the policing and surveillance of what was previously a gender-neutral career, turning it into one dominated by thousands of female rural migrants. Servants of Culture provides an account of Habsburg servant law since the eighteenth century and uncovers the paternalistic and maternalistic assumptions and anxieties which turned the interest of socio-political players in improving poor living and working conditions into practices that created restrictive gender and class hierarchies. Through pioneering analysis of the agendas of medical experts, police, socialists, feminists, legal reformers, and even serial killers, this volume puts forth a neglected history of the state of domestic service discourse at the turn of the 19th century and how it shaped and continues to shape the surveillance of women.

Ambika Natarajan is a Research Associate at the University of Mumbai-Department of Atomic Energy Centre for Excellence in Basic Sciences, Mumbai, India. She has a PhD in history of science from Oregon State University and graduate degrees in biotechnology and English. She has taught courses in the history and philosophy of science, ethics, American religious history, and bio-statistics internationally.