Central European U. Press

Narratives unbound; historical studies in post-communist Eastern Europe.

These studies of Eastern European historiography will fill a gap long left open by politics and the aftermath of war. After a brief introduction to post-communist historical studies, contributors describe Hungarian historical writing in the 1990s, Polish historical studies after 1989, new paradigms in Czech historical studies after 1989, the struggle of nation and trans-national history in Slovakia in the 1990s, mastering the past in Romania, and choosing between academic standards and political agendas in Bulgaria. Along the way contributors describe changes in standardized texts and revisionists' efforts to make certain historical accounts are as objective possible. The result is a fascinating study of what happens when history becomes the property of a political system. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Which socialism? whose détente?; West European communism and the Czechoslovak crisis, 1968.

At the very time when Czech leaders were experimenting with alternatives to the Soviet model of socialism that led to the Prague Spring, says Bracke (modern European history, U. of Glasgow), western communist parties, particularly in France and Italy, were mounting a credible challenge to the injustices of capitalism; but when the crisis came, solidarity between the two movements that could have spawned a new world withered under the gaze of their respective superpower masters. In order to explain the parties' continued adherence to the Soviet-dominated communist world, she looks at their international loyalties and orientations, party identity, domestic strategy, and responses to the Czech revolt of 1968-69. Distributed in the US by Books International. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)