The Ambivalence of Identity. The Austrian Experience of Nation-Building in a Modern Society by Peter ThalerThe Haider Phenomenon in Austria by Ruth Wodak, Anton Pelinka

Abstract

242 Reviews creation of theMYCES database ofAustrian women doctors (Horn); the Lexikon ?sterreichischer Wissenschafterinnen(Keintzel/Korotin); and thenet-based project called Science.Exile, whose multimedia biographies and database can be accessed at http://scienceexile.coresearch.org (Zwieauer). The methodology of biography isalso at issue. In thefirstof the essays (Dausien), theoretical considerations pertaining to gender-specific biographical research are raised. Modern academic biographers, it is suggested, cannot sidestep questions raised by the long-running debate on deconstruction; biography itself is both a construct and an historically defined institution,and therefore risks reproducing the notions of gender (for example) that are enshrined in cultural belief systems at a given moment in history. The contributors to this short volume show themselves aware of problems as well as goals in the field; problems, for example, in the selection and presentation of the subjects of biography (Stopczyk, Horn), and the difficulties created by the political history of the twentieth century, such that some academic women's biographies 'disappear' under National Socialism, and many are affected (Keintzel/Korotin). As far as the biografiA project itself is concerned, the primary desideratum ? inspired by theDansk kuindebiografisk leksikon ? is an Austrian-based biographical work that is specifically devoted towomen, against a background of existing lexical works inwhich articles devoted to women range from one percent to perhaps twenty percent (Lebensaft). The major difference between the Danish and the Austrian project is thatwhere the formerwas printed, the latter is envisaged as an interactive electronic resource. There isno doubt that theundertaking is worthwhile, and itsdevelopment will be most interesting towatch. University of Edinburgh Sarah Colvin The Ambivalence ofIdentity. The AustrianExperience of Nation-Building inaModern Society. By Peter Thaler. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press. 2001. 240 pp. ft44.95. isbn -55753-2 - . The Haider Phenomenon inAustria. Ed. by Ruth Wodak and Anton Pelinka. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers. 2002. 264 pp. $40.00. isbn 0-7658-0883-8. Peter Thaler's thorough study is of value toAustrian scholars as well as anyone interested in twentieth-century theories of nation-building. In a systematic approach, Thaler portrays the Austrian case of nation-building as a successful project resulting from the 'conscious effortsof elites' to build an Austrian 'nation' after the Second World War. On a theoretical level he favours the 'instrumentalist' theories of Gellner, Anderson and Hobsbawm, presenting post-war Austria as evidence of a constructed 'imagined community'. The end of every chapter contains a wealth of detailed notes, indicating thedepth and breadth ofThaler's research. The first chapters give an overview of theories of 'national identity' and the 'crucial role of elites' (p. 1) in Austrian nation-building. The main factors are outlined that underpinned the success of this nation-building process ? such as consensus politics, social partnership, economic success, political stability and neutrality during theCold War. Chapter Three gives a fascinating account of how a distinctly 'Austrianist' historiography was developed after 1945 ? aiming to AUSTRIAN STUDIES, II, 2OO3 243 eradicate pan-German ideology and reinforce an Austriannational identity.A post 1945 national ideology emerged, involving the demarcation from Germany: Austrians and Austria had never been part of theGerman nation' (p. 59). A new historywas written, based on a highly selective interpretation of the past, with the specific intention of giving historical credence to the notion of an independent Austrian nationhood. Austrian nationhood' was a relatively new concept. Before 1938 every part of the Austrian political spectrum favoured itsown version of the Anschluss and considered the idea of an Austrian 'nation' to be flawed. Austria was considered an intregal part of theGerman nation, history and culture. The notable exception in the 1930s was theKPO (Austrian Communist Party) who declared in 1937 that theywould 'publicly recognize and support theAustrian nation' (p. 73). Thaler then turns to the 'institutional instruments of nation building' (p. 110) employed by elites after 1945. The main activity of these institutions centred on the eradication of pan Germanism and National Socialism from Austrian life.To this end, the courts enforced laws against German associations, German societies and the use of the term 'German' inpolitical discourse. In the educational sphere a dissemination of Austrian' history was practised through revised versions of textbooks. Ger manness ? inparticular Nazism ? was systematically 'delegitimized...