Who are the Austrians and what is their significance as a nation? Are they the heirs of composers such as Mozart and Schubert, of revolutionary thinkers such as Freud and Wittgenstein, or of politicians such as Hitler and Kurt Waldheim? To what extent have the Austrians come to terms with their Nazi past, as opposed to the Germans? Is their future founded in the Holy Roman Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Habsburg Dynasty, or the Anschluss? These are some of the questions.

Noted historian Gordon Brook-Shepherd addresses in this authoritative work. With a lifetime's personal intimacy with Austria, associations with several of its leaders, and access to private Habsburg family archives, Brook-Shepherd traces the identity of a nation, as it developed over a millennium, at the heart of Europe's political existence.