A History Of East Central Europe

A study of East Central Europe and its place in the modern world. Combining narrative with analysis, it presents the past and present of East Central Europe in the larger context of the political and economic history of the continent.

National literary histories based on internally homogeneous native traditions have significantly contributed to the construction of national identities, especially in multicultural East-Central Europe, the region between the German and Russian hegemonic cultural powers stretching from the Baltic states to the Balkans. History of the Literary Cultures of East-Central Europe, which covers the last two hundred years, reconceptualizes these literary traditions by de-emphasizing the national myths and by highlighting analogies and points of contact, as well as hybrid and marginal phenomena that traditional national histories have ignored or deliberately suppressed. The four volumes of the History configure the literatures from five angles: (1) key political events, (2) literary periods and genres, (3) cities and regions, (4) literary institutions, and (5) real and imaginary figures. The first volume, which includes the first two of these dimensions, is a collaborative effort of more than fifty contributors from Eastern and Western Europe, the US, and Canada.The four volumes of the History comprise the first volume in the new subseries on Literary Cultures.

The Price of Freedom surveys and explains the fascinating and intricate history of East Central Europe - the present day countries of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. Taking a thematic approach, the author explores such issues and controversies as the tension between the industrial developed West and the agrarian East Central Europe, the rise of modern nationalism, democracy and authoritarianism and Communism. While the countries of East Central Europe have differed dramatically from one another, the author asserts that they have been bound by a certain community of fate. These comparisons are traced through the Middle Ages and the Early Modern era to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This exploration reveals that it is no accident that the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland were the first among the former Soviet bloc nations to be admitted to NATO, and are likely to become the first members of the expanded European Union. Thus an understanding of their experiences, contributions and their place within the European community of nations vastly enriches our knowledge of Europe's past and present. The second edition of this distinguished book brings the history of the region up to date. It discusses the events of the post-communist decade of the 1990s and the problems resulting from the transition to democracy and market economy.

Covering territory from Russia in the east to Germany and Austria in the west, The Routledge History of East Central Europe since 1700 explores the origins and evolution of modernity in this turbulent region. This book applies fresh critical approaches to major historical controversies and debates, expanding the study of a region that has experienced persistent and profound change and yet has long been dominated by narrowly nationalist interpretations. Written by an international team of contributors that reflects the increasing globalization and pluralism of East Central European studies, chapters discuss key themes such as economic development, the relationship between religion and ethnicity, the intersection between culture and imperial, national, wartime, and revolutionary political agendas, migration, women’s and gender history, ideologies and political movements, the legacy of communism, and the ways in which various states in East Central Europe deployed and were formed by the politics of memory and commemoration. This book uses new methodologies in order to fundamentally reshape perspectives on the development of East Central Europe over the past three centuries. Transnational and comparative in approach, this volume presents the latest research on the social, cultural, political and economic history of modern East Central Europe, providing an analytical and comprehensive overview for all students of this region.

East Central Europe Between The Two World Wars is a sophisticated political history of East Central Europe in the interwar years. Written by an eminent scholar in the field, it is an original contribution to the literature on the political cultures of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, and the Baltic states.

Transregional connections play a fundamental role in the history of East-Central Europe. This volume explores this connectivity by showing how people from eastern and central parts of Europe have positioned themselves within global processes while, in turn, also shaping them. The contributions examine different fields of action such as economy, arts, international regulations and law, development aid, and migration, focusing on the period between the middle of the nineteenth century and the end of the Cold War. The authors uncover spaces of interaction and emphasize that internal and external entanglements have established East-Central Europe as a distinct region. Understanding the connectedness of this subregion is stimulating for the historiography of East-Central Europe as it is for the field of global history.

Topics covered include early migrations, state formation, monarchies, classes (nobles, landholders, peasants, herders, serfs, and slaves), towns, religion, war, governments, laws and justice, commerce and money, foreign affairs, ethnicity and nationalism, languages and literature, and education and literacy.

The Price of Freedom surveys and explains the fascinating and intricate history of East Central Europe - the present day countries of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. Taking a thematic approach, the author explores such issues and controversies as the tension between the industrial developed West and the agrarian East Central Europe, the rise of modern nationalism, democracy and authoritarianism and Communism. While the countries of East Central Europe have differed dramatically from one another, the author asserts that they have been bound by a certain community of fate. These comparisons are traced through the Middle Ages and the Early Modern era to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This exploration reveals that it is no accident that the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland were the first among the former Soviet bloc nations to be admitted to NATO, and are likely to become the first members of the expanded European Union. Thus an understanding of their experiences, contributions and their place within the European community of nations vastly enriches our knowledge of Europe's past and present.The second edition of this distinguished book brings the history of the region up to date. It discusses the events of the post-communist decade of the 1990s and the problems resulting from the transition to democracy and market economy.

The volume offers the first-ever synthetic overview of the history of modern political thought in East Central Europe.

Written by one of the world's foremost authorities on East Central Europe, Return to Diversity has proven to be an invaluable guide for readers of modern European history and politics. This third edition introduces a new co-author, Nancy M. Wingfield, and has been fully updated to take into account recent and ongoing developments in the region.