Overview
This book describes and analyzes the many faces of Austria, past and present. Anton Pelinka comes to terms with the myriad perceptions of Austria: the legacy of the Austria of the Habsburgs, which dominated Central Europe until World War I; the Austria of Hitler, from which sprouted Nazism; post-1945 Austria, much less spectacular than earlier eras, but more predictable; and the Austria of today, struggling with its role within Europe as a small country on the eastern fringe of Europe’s sphere of prosperity.Focusing his investigation on the Austria that has emerged from World War II, Pelinka underscores the social, economic, cultural, and political developments behind the period of transition that followed. The book emphasizes the general decline of the traits considered as typically Austrian, from Austrian Catholicism and social partnership to permanent neutrality and Austrian social democracy. As the millennium approaches, Austria resembles the other small democracies of Western Europe much more closely than its own regal past.