Librería Portfolio

Why is Eastern Europe still different from Western Europe, more than a quarter-century after the collapse of Communism? A History of Eastern Europe 1918 to the Present shows how the roots of this difference are based in Eastern Europe´s tortured 20th century.

Eastern Europe emerged in 1918 as the ´lands between´, new states whose weakness vis-à-vis Germany and Soviet Russia soon became obvious. The region was the main killing-field of the Second World War, which visited unimaginable horrors on its inhabitants before their ´liberation´ by the Soviets in 1945. The imposition of Communist dictatorships on the region, ironically, only deepened Eastern Europe´s backwardness. Even in the post-Communist period, its problems continue to make it a fertile breeding-ground for nationalism and political extremism.

A History of Eastern Europe 1918 to the Present explores the comparative backwardness of Eastern Europe and how this has driven strategies of modernisation; it looks at the ways in which the region has served as a giant test-tube for political experimentation and, in particular, at the enduring strength of nationalism, which since 1989 has re-emerged more virulent than ever.

This book in the essential textbook for any student of 20th-century Eastern Europe.
Table of Contents
List of Maps
Preface

Introduction
Part One: The Pre-History of Twentieth-Century Eastern Europe
Chapter 1: The Making of "Eastern Europeö
Chapter 2: Melting-Pot: Eastern Europe in the First World War
Chapter 3: A New Europe? The Peace Settlement 1918-23

Part Two: Pig in the Middle
Chapter 4: Problems of the Interwar Period
Chapter 5: Test-Tube of Ideologies: Communism
Chapter 6: Test-Tube of Ideologies: Conservative Authoritarianism
Chapter 7: Test-Tube of Ideologies: Fascism
Chapter 8: The East European Origins of the Second World War
Chapter 9: Hell´s Kitchen: Eastern Europe in the Second World War
Chapter 10: War as Revolution: Political Consequences of the Second World War

Part Three: Saddling Cows
Chapter 11: Great Leap Backwards: The Imposition of Communism 1944-48
Chapter 12: National Communism vs. Stalinism
Chapter 13: The Perils of De-Stalinisation: Poland and Hungary in 1956
Chapter 14: Last-Chance Saloon? The Prague Spring of 1968
Chapter 15: Absurdistan, or ´Real Existing Socialism´ 1968-1980s
Chapter 16: The Solidarity Phenomenon in Poland 1980-89

Part Four: All Change?
Chapter 17: The Bear Vanishes: Gorbachev and the Roots of Revolution 1985-89
Chapter 18: The Power of the Powerless: The Velvet Revolutions of 1989
Chapter 19: The Wages of Nationalism: Soviet, Yugoslav and Czech-Slovak Break-Up
Chapter 20: Eastern Europe in the 21st Century: Post-Communist Modernisation
Chapter 21: Eastern Europe in the 21st Century: Nationalism and Geopolitics

Conclusion: Retirement of a Concept?
Bibliography
Index