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This book covers various aspects of the social history of politics
on both sides of the Iron Curtain in the period 1945 to 1956. The
contributors come from a range of countries (Austria, Germany,
Hungary, Slovakia and the United Kingdom) and comprise a mixture of
established historians and younger scholars engaged in pioneering
research. The individual chapters are organised into four sections
dealing with workers, ethnic and linguistic minorities, youth, and
women. In order to enhance the comparative character of the volume,
the four chapters contained in each section consider the position
of these social groups in, respectively, West Germany, East
Germany, Austria, and either Czechoslovakia or Hungary. Major
themes include the absence of popular revolutions in the aftermath
of World War Two, the re-imposition of social control by post-war
elites, the attempt to restore pre-war gender relations, and the
failure of Communist parties to win popular support. The chosen
time-frame saw most of the decisive developments which set the
pattern for the remaining Cold War period and is therefore of key
importance for any student of this topic. -- .
In March 1946 Winston Churchill warned the world about the 'Iron
Curtain' that had descended across Europe and behind which now lay,
he said, the eight capitals of the ancient states of central and
Eastern Europe. In fact, one of these eight, Vienna, escaped
absorption into the Soviet bloc. Between 1945 and 1955, Austria and
its capital were occupied by the Four (increasingly mutually
antagonistic) Allied Powers. During this decade of confusion,
insecurity, suspicion and fear, and confronted by poverty and the
threat of famine, Austria's political and economic elites joined
forces to promote a culture of political unity and harmony from
which eventually emerged the Austrian model of corporatism,
commonly referred to as the Social Partnership. This book sets the
social and economic difficulties that Austria encountered in this
crucial decade in their international context and examines how they
were contained. The author also discusses the long-term
implications of the Austrian culture of consensus, not only for the
way in which the country dealt with its recent past, but also for
present-day political developments. A remarkable study that will be
essential reading for students and scholars of twentieth-century
European history. -- .
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