A Cold War over Austria is a magnificent exploration of the origins of Austrian postwar independence, charting the slow and often tortuous processes leading to the formation of the State Treaty of 1955, but also a providing a probing examination of the broader ideological matrices and strategic networks that defined postwar diplomacy among the victorious, but rival Allies. This book constitutes a fascinating case study for the political history of postwar international relations in Central Europe between 1945 and 1955, but it also offers many valuable and original insights into the murky world of post-1945 Austrian domestic politics as well. This is an authoritative book, written with a full and masterful command of a vast array of important historical sources.

John W. Boyer, University of Chicago

In A Cold War over Austria, Gerald Stourzh and Wolfgang Mueller provide a thoroughly revised and nicely translated updating of Stourzh’s classic study of the genesis of the Austrian State Treaty of 1955. The authors have produced a clear, veracious, and superbly documented history of the attempt on the part of the Four Powers and of the Austrians themselves to find a solution to the complex and entangled Austrian problem. This important book should become standard reading for scholars and students of the Cold War in Europe.

Norman Naimark, Stanford University

Essential reading in the context of Cold War studies and Stalin’s hegemonic policies in Europe.

Journal of Modern History