Inside Austria: New Challenges, Old Demons [Hardcover]

A personal report on postwar Austria's economic and social success story and on its turbulent political history.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.1. Introduction: Why Did I Write This Book?2. Austrian Clich?s: The Media Curtain3. The Victim Myth and Zero Hour 19454. Founding Father of Many Faces5. The Role of a Foreign Correspondent6. Compromise: The Basic Principle of Social Partnership7. The Economic Miracle8. The Crisis Years of the Coalition9. The Reformer Josef Klaus10. The Splendour and Misery of the ?VP Government11. Kreisky's Secret Power Base12. Shadows of the Nazi Past: Kreisky versus Wiesenthal13. The Riddle of Minister R?sch, or the Brown Stains of the Socialists14. Power Struggle in the Court of the Sun King 15. The Waldheim Affair and the Misfortune of a Successor16. The Vranitzky Decade of Relative Stability17. Sch?ssel, Rise and Fall of a Player18. Battle for Power: Threat to StabilityPaul Lendvaiis a Hungarian-born Austrian journalist who worked as a correspondent for theFinancial Timesfor more thlsÐ