Like its predecessor, this study attempts to review the history and treat in a concise and objective manner the dominant social, political, economic, and military aspects of Austria. Sources of information included books, scholarly journals, foreign and domestic newspapers, official reports of government and international organizations, and numerous periodicals on Austrian and international affairs. Chapter bibliographies appear at the end of the book, and brief comments on some of the more valuable sources recommended for further reading appear at the end of each chapter. A glossary also is included.
Spellings of place-names used in the book are in most cases those approved by the United States Board on Geographic Names. Exceptions are the use of Vienna rather than Wien, Danube rather than Donau, Lake Constance rather than Bodensee, and the English names of four Austrian provinces rather than their German names: Carinthia rather than Kärnten, Lower Austria rather than Niederösterreich, Styria rather than Steiermark, and Upper Austria rather than Oberösterreich.
Measurements are given in the metric system. A conversion table is provided to assist readers unfamiliar with metric measures (see table 1, Appendix).
The body of the text reflects information available as of December 31, 1993. Certain other portions of the text, however, have been updated. The Introduction discusses significant events that have occurred since the completion of the research, the Country Profile and Glossary include updated information as available, and the Bibliography lists recently published sources thought to be particularly helpful to the reader.
Data as of December 1993