ECONOMY OF FEAR. The return of the nervous age

„Rathkolb sees great similarities with the time before the First World War and has dared to make a comparison between eras.“ Courier

Radicalisation, authoritarianism, warmongering, xenophobia and loss of control: we all feel the nervous fever and it reminds us of times long gone.
Oliver Rathkolb identifies the cause as the »first and second turbo-globalisation«. Political upheavals, economic crises and technological innovations overwhelmed national societies and their political elites in the run-up to the First World War, just as they do today - and called the robber barons of the economy onto the scene. Irrational wrong decisions in politics, a polarisation of the population and the feeling of marginalisation of the individual awaken a longing for the »strong man« and simple, often violent solutions to complex problems.
Are we facing a new authoritarian era?

Oliver Rathkolb, born in 1955, was a long-standing director and professor at the Institute of Contemporary History at the University of Vienna. He is the author of numerous publications on Austrian and international contemporary and cultural history as well as editor of the journal »zeitgeschichte« and chairman of the scientific advisory board of the House of European History in Brussels. Rathkolb is chairman of the Vienna Institute for Culture and Contemporary History (VICCA) and of the scientific advisory board of the Kreisky Forum.

Moderation  Barbara Tóth, journalist, author and historian, senior editor at the city newspaper FALTER

Oliver Rathkolb:
The economy of fear
Molden Verlag, October 2025, 33 €