Return to Diversity: A Political History of East Central Europe since World War II by Joseph Rothschild, Nancy M. Wingfield

Synopsis

Now updated to cover events since 1989, this highly acclaimed text offers a complete political history of East Central Europe from World War II to the present by one of the world's foremost authorities on the area. The second edition includes an account and analysis of the collapse of communist regimes throughout the region, addressing each country's transformation and approach toward post-communist government. Extensive sections address the triumph and breakup of Poland's Solidarity, ethnic discord in Czechoslovakia, the rise of coalition government in Hungary, the calculated retreat of Albania's communist regime, the ousting of old-line leaders in Bulgaria and Romania, and the war in Yugoslavia. A new epilogue considers how far the heirs of East Central Europe have come and warns of dilemmas and complications that may arise in the near future. Unsurpassed in scope, in depth of analysis, and in fairness and objectivity, Return to Diversity is an invaluable resource for students of this region's history and politics.

Annotation

This up-to-date volume offers a country-by-country account of the widespread political malaise in East Central Europe.

Biography

The late Joseph Rothschild served as Class of 1919 Professor of Political Science and Associate of the Institute on East Central Europe at Columbia University. His books include Ethnopolitics: A Conceptual Framework (1981), East Central Europe Between the Two World Wars (1974), Pilsudski's Coup d'Etat (1966), and The Communist Party of Bulgaria (1959.
Nancy M. Wingfield is Professor of History at Northern Illinois University. She is author of Flag Wars and Stone Saints: How the Bohemian Lands Became Czech (forthcoming in 2007); editor of Creating the Other: Ethnic Conflict and Nationalism in Habsburg Central Europe (2003); and coeditor, with Maria Bucur, of Gender and War in Twentieth-Century Eastern Europe (2006) and Staging the Past: The Politics of Commemoration in Habsburg Central Europe, 1848 to the Present (2001).