Introduction : why did I write this book?
Austrian clichés : the media curtain
The victim myth and 'zero hour' 1945
Founding father of many faces
The role of a foreign correspondent
Compromise : the basic principle of social partnership
The economic miracle
The crisis years of the coalition
The reformer Josef Klaus
The splendour and misery of the ÖVP government
Kreisky's secret power base
Shadows of the Nazi past : Kreisky versus Wiesenthal
The riddle of Minister Rösch, or, The brown stains of the socialists
Power struggle in the 'Court of the Sun King'
The Waldheim affair and the misfortune of a successor
The Vranitzky decade of relative stability
Schüssel, rise and fall of a player
Battle for power : threat to stability.