Left Paternalism

Most historical work on Austrian socialism in the interwar years is inclined to praise it, often somewhat over-enthusiastically. Helmut Gruber’s intention in this book, however, is to bury it. There was no doubt a strong tendency among socialist commentators in Europe and in this country to concoct a kind of rose-colored mythology about the legendary Red Vienna that Gruber delights in debunking, but his demythologizing effort carries him farther than he might have intended. As a result, this book by an author who clearly sympathizes with the New Left in this country sometimes reads almost like a right-wing polemic.

The prevalent left-wing myth about socialist Vienna in the twenties has it that Vienna prefigured in crucial re...