Inside Austria: New Challenges, Old Demons

by Paul Lendvai

Overview

Inside Austria is a gripping, in-depth personal report on postwar Austria's economic and social success story but also on its turbulent political history. How has this small land-locked country emerged as the European Union's fourth richest member state? Who are the Austrians, one of Europe's oldest people whose nation-state came into being only after the collapse of the Austro- Hungarian empire in 1918? To what extent have they come to terms with the demons of their recent past: Hitler's Anschluss, the Waldheim affair and then later Jorg Haider's disturbing radical right-wing ascendancy in Carinthia? This book is a unique study of the Austrian odyssey, based on a blend of academic research and half a century of personal observation by the Hungarian-born author who as a foreign correspondent and later as a political analyst obtained first-hand information from the politicians who played or are still playing a leading part in the march of events he has described.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781849040396
Publisher:	Hurst
Publication date:	05/06/2010
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	8.60(w) x 5.70(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Paul Lendvai is a Hungarian-born Austrian journalist who worked as a correspondent for the Financial Times for more than two decades. His prize-winning memoir, Blacklisted: A Journalist's Life in Central Europe, boldly takes stock of the ethnic hatred, political turbulence, and murderous anti-Semitism of twentieth-century Central Europe.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: Why Did I Write This Book?
2. Austrian Clichés: The Media Curtain
3. The Victim Myth and "Zero Hour" 1945
4. Founding Father of Many Faces
5. The Role of a Foreign Correspondent
6. Compromise: The Basic Principle of Social Partnership
7. The Economic Miracle
8. The Crisis Years of the Coalition
9. The Reformer Josef Klaus
10. The Splendour and Misery of the ÖVP Government
11. Kreisky's Secret Power Base
12. Shadows of the Nazi Past: Kreisky versus Wiesenthal
13. The Riddle of Minister Rösch, or the Brown Stains of the Socialists
14. Power Struggle in the "Court of the Sun King"
15. The Waldheim Affair and the Misfortune of a Successor
16. The Vranitzky Decade of Relative Stability
17. Schüssel, Rise and Fall of a Player
18. Battle for Power: Threat to Stability

What People are Saying About This

Walter Lacqueur

The most reliable, informative book on contemporary Austria. A joy to read.

— Walter Lacqueur, author of The Last Days of Europe: Epitaph for an Old Continent

Istvan Deak

Paul Lendvai has once again succeeded in producing an excellent and enlightening volume, this time about his adopted country. He gives us personal insight into twentieth-century Austrian history and politics, often critical but always full of sympathy. This very fine translation will enable English-speaking readers to gain unique glimpses of the highly successful alpine republic as seen by one of its leading public intellectuals.

George Weidenfeld

A model of clarity and that higher objectivity that allows no bias yet has a red thread through it, a humanist orientation and factual integrity. This book deserves to be a standard work on the history of Austria, which it also narrates in a masterly style.

— George Weidenfeld, publisher and president of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, London

István Deák

Paul Lendvai has once again succeeded in producing an excellent and enlightening volume, this time about his adopted country. He gives us personal insight into twentieth-century Austrian history and politics, often critical but always full of sympathy. This very fine translation will enable English-speaking readers to gain unique glimpses of the highly successful alpine republic as seen by one of its leading public intellectuals.

— István Deák, Columbia University

Melanie Sully

A lively, well-informed volume. Paul Lendvai makes no secret that this is a very personal account, and yet Austria, including its infamous past, does not escape his critical eye.

— Melanie Sully, Diplomatic Academy, Vienna

Editorial Reviews

"Paul Lendvai has once again succeeded in producing an excellent and enlightening volume, this time about his adopted country. He gives us a personal insight into twentieth century Austrian history and politics, often critical but always full of sympathy. This very fine translation will enable the English-speaking reader to gain unique glimpses of the highly successful Alpine Republic as seen by one of its leading public intellectuals."—István Deák, Seth Low Professor Emeritus of History, Columbia University

From the Publisher

Lendvai seeks to explain what Austria is like. He has succeeded exactly in this endeavor.

Die Welt

Daring, exciting, unmasking.... Lendvai presents hitherto hardly known facts [and] incredible details.

NEWS (Vienna Weekly)