Schorske has chosen a very precise time period in a very precise place, Habsburg Austria in the 40-50 years before the First World War which led to the end of the Empire. He concentrates first of all on Vienna, and then on particular arts - fiction, poetry, music, painting, architecture, psychoanalysis - and then concentrates further on particular persons, Freud, Klimt, Otto Wagner etc. He is fascinating in showing the interconnections of politics (which is peripheral to the study) and art and of the sociology/politics of the art world. It was a particularly rich period and indeed went on to be even richer after the war. Above all it is a deep analysis and it is, for instance, fascinating to see how such a well-known work as The Interpretation of Dreams fits into the cultural, political, social, caste, etc etc milieu.