The Post-Communist Era

Change and Continuity in Eastern Europe

B. Fowkes

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 1999
• Print ISBN:
  9780333692035
• eBook ISBN:
  9780230376915
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: European History
• Index: Politics & International Relations

History did not come to an end with the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe. This book tells the story of what followed during the 1990s. Political and national conflict, social and cultural change and the economic challenge of the transition to the market are all given their due weight. The comparative approach is combined with a detailed treatment of individual countries in alternating chapters. The distinction is made here between East Central Europe, where the author's conclusions are largely optimistic, and the Balkans, where uncertainty still prevails.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Preface
• List of Abbreviations
• 1 Introduction: Mapping Out the Theme
• 2 The Inheritance of the Past and the Revolutions of 1989
• 3 History Changes Gear: the Transition in East- Central Europe
• 4 Hesitant Beginnings in South-Eastern Europe: a 'Balkan Lag'?
• 5 National Minorities and Ethnic Conflict
• 6 The Economic Underpinnings: Tearing down the Old, Building up the New
• 7 The Shock of the New: Social Consequences and Costs of Transition
• 8 The Middle Years: Drifting towards the Millennium
• Appendix: Statistical Tables
• Notes
• Index