Table of Contents

Acknowledgements Maps Introduction: The Shock of the New 1. Different Paths on an Open Road: Economic and Social Change 2. In Praise of Ethnic Cleansing? National Struggles 3. Peeling the Past: Nostalgia and Punishment 4. Portraits in Hubris: Democratic Politics 5. A New Europe: The East in the West Conclusion: The Edge of History Notes Index

Promotional Information

Presents a thematic history of the 15 countries comprising the post-communist 'New Europe'. This title considers the effects of revolutionary change, the resurgence of nationalism, and the examination of the past. It looks at the process of building stable democratic states, and their integration with international structures.

About the Author

PADRAIC KENNEY divides his time between Wroclaw, Poland, and Boulder, Colorado, where he is professor of history at the University of Colorado. His previous books on East European history and politics include A Carnival of Revolution: Central Europe 1989 (Princeton, 2002).. The series editor is NICHOLAS GUYATT.

Reviews

'An exceedingly useful book a sensible and perspicacious assessment of the complex and often just plain confusing developments after 1989. And an exciting read. Kenney highlights the strenuous processes of democratic nation-building and reminds us that, despite set-backs and outright disasters, democratic nations can be built in the twenty-first century and that Europe has become a different continent for it.' - Michael Geyer, Department of History, University of Chicago 'Padraic Kenney's insightful survey of Eastern Europe since the fall of communism combines sensitive local histories with sophisticated general theory. The Burdens of Freedom makes sense of the paradoxical development of a vast and diverse region: its arduous economic transitions, its accommodation of painful pasts, and despite intervening disillusion and setbacks, its emerging civic stamina.' - Charles S. Maier, Saltonstall Professor of History, Harvard University and author of Dissolution: The Crisis of Communism and the End of East Germany.