New Books in Eastern European Studies

Christopher Ocker, "Luther, Conflict, and Christendom: Reformation Europe and Christianity in the West" (Cambridge UP, 2018)

04 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Martin Luther - monk, priest, intellectual, or revolutionary - has been a controversial figure since the sixteenth century. Most studies of Luther str...

Suzanne L. Marchand, "Porcelain: A History from the Heart of Europe" (Princeton UP, 2020)

04 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Suzanne L. Marchand's new book Porcelain: A History from the Heart of Europe (Princeton University Press, 2020) balances several histories at once t...

Larry E. Holmes, "Revising the Revolution: The Unmaking of Russia's Official History of 1917" (Indiana UP, 2021)

03 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The clash between scholarship and politics—between truth and propaganda— had always been a conflict of great importance. In the 1920s the Commissi...

Kristy Ironside, "A Full-Value Ruble: The Promise of Prosperity in the Postwar Soviet Union" (Harvard UP, 2021)

02 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In spite of Karl Marx's proclamation that money would become obsolete under Communism, the ruble remained a key feature of Soviet life. In fact, altho...

Paolo Dardanelli and Oscar Mazzoleni, "Dealing with Europe: Lessons from Switzerland's Experience" (Routledge, 2021)

31 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Between voting to leave the European Union in 2016 and doing it four years later, the British political and media classes debated what kind of relatio...

Natalia Aleksiun, "Conscious History: Polish Jewish Historians before the Holocaust" (Liverpool UP, 2021)

31 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Thoroughly researched, Conscious History: Polish Jewish Historians before the Holocaust (Liverpool UP, 2021) highlights the historical scholarship t...

Katarzyna Person, "Warsaw Ghetto Police: The Jewish Order Service During the Nazi Occupation" (Cornell UP, 2021)

28 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In Warsaw Ghetto Police: The Jewish Order Service during the Nazi Occupation (Cornell University Press/US Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2021) , Katar...

Linda Colley, "The Gun, the Ship, and the Pen: Warfare, Constitutions, and the Making of the Modern World" (Liveright, 2021)

26 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Linda Colley is a luminary in the fields of British and imperial history, and the Shelby M. C. Davis 1958 Professor of History at Princeton University...

Beatrice de Graaf, "Fighting Terror after Napoleon: How Europe Became Secure after 1815" (Cambridge UP, 2020)

21 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

After twenty-six years of unprecedented revolutionary upheavals and endless fighting, the victorious powers craved stability after Napoleon's defeat i...

Ned Richardson-Little, "The Human Rights Dictatorship: Socialism, Global Solidarity and Revolution in East Germany" (Cambridge UP, 2020)

21 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In The Human Rights Dictatorship: Socialism, Global Solidarity and Revolution in East Germany (Cambridge UP, 2020), Ned Richardson-Little exposes t...

Faith Hillis, "Utopia's Discontents: Russian Emigres and the Quest for Freedom, 1830s-1930s" (Oxford UP, 2021)

18 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In April 1917, Lenin arrived at Petrograd's Finland Station and set foot on Russian soil for the first time in over a decade. For most of the past sev...

Sten Rynniing et al., "War Time: Temporality and the Decline of Western Military Power" (Chatham House, 2020)

17 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The "decline of the West" is once again a frequent topic of speculation. Often cited as one element of the alleged decline is the succession of prolon...

Christine M. Philliou, "Turkey: A Past Against History" (U California Press, 2021)

12 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Christine M. Philliou's Turkey: A Past Against History (University of California Press, 2021) challenges conventional understandings about the trans...

Hannah Barker, "That Most Precious Merchandise: The Mediterranean Trade in Black Sea Slaves, 1260-1500" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2019)

12 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Before the Transatlantic slave trade ravaged the western coast of Africa, immense numbers of persons were taken from their homes and carried across th...

Erik Jones, "European Studies: Past, Present, and Future" (Agenda, 2020)

07 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

“It is no secret that European studies has suffered a setback in the academy”, write William Collins Donahue and Martin Kagel in their contributio...

Ora Szekely, et al., "Insurgent Women: Female Combatants in Civil Wars" (Georgetown UP, 2019)

07 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Today I talked to Ora Szekely about Insurgent Women: Female Combatants in Civil Wars (Georgetown UP, 2019), which she co-edited with Jessica Trisk...

Amelia M. Glaser, "Songs in Dark Times: Yiddish Poetry of Struggle from Scottsboro to Palestine" (Harvard UP, 2020)

05 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Between the world wars, a generation of Jewish leftist poets reached out to other embattled peoples of the earth--Palestinian Arabs, African Americans...

Marko Dumancic, "Men Out of Focus: The Soviet Masculinity Crisis in the Long Sixties" (U Toronto Press, 2021)

05 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Marko Dumancic's book Men Out of Focus: The Soviet Masculinity Crisis in the Long Sixties (University of Toronto Press, 2021) charts conversations a...

David Rainbow, "Ideologies of Race: Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union in Global Context" (McGill-Queen's Press, 2019)

05 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Conflicting notions about the dynamics of race in Russia and the Soviet Union have made it difficult for both scholars and other observers of the regi...

Oksana Rosenblum et al., "Quiet Spiders of the Hidden Soul: Mykola (Nik) Bazhan’s Early Experimental Poetry" (Academic Studies Press, 2020)

05 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Quiet Spiders of the Hidden Soul: Mykola (Nik) Bazhan’s Early Experimental Poetry (Academic Studies Press, 2020) presents a collection of early wor...

Svenja Bethke, "Dance on the Razor's Edge: Crime and Punishment in the Nazi Ghettos" (U Toronto Press, 2021)

30 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The ghettos established by the Nazis in German-occupied Eastern Europe during the Second World War have mainly been seen as lawless spaces marked by b...

Erik Grimmer-Solem, "Learning Empire: Globalization and the German Quest for World Status, 1875-1919" (Cambridge UP, 2019)

28 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The First World War marked the end point of a process of German globalization that began in the 1870s, well before Germany acquired a colonial empire ...

Stella Ghervas, "Conquering Peace: From the Enlightenment to the European Union" (Harvard UP, 2021)

28 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Stella Ghervas's Conquering Peace: From the Enlightenment to the European Union (Harvard University Press, 2021) is a bold new look at war and dipl...

Ritchie Robertson, "The Enlightenment: The Pursuit of Happiness, 1680-1790" (Harper, 2021)

27 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The Enlightenment: The Pursuit of Happiness, 1680-1790 (Harper, 2021) is a magisterial history that recasts the Enlightenment as a period not solely...

Serhiy Zhadan, "The Orphanage" (Yale UP, 2021)

26 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The Ukrainian literary scene today is particularly vibrant. The voice of Serhiy Zhadan is distinct, well-known, and easily-recognizable. In 2021, Yale...

David Hosaflook (trans.), "The Siege of Shkodra: Albania's Courageous Stand Against Ottoman Conquest, 1478" (2017)

15 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Mehmet the Conqueror shook Europe to its foundations when he captured Constantinople in 1453 and, over the next decades, the Ottoman sultan continued ...

Oksana Kis, "Survival As Victory: Ukrainian Women in the Gulag" (Harvard UP, 2021)

14 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Oksana Kis’s Survival as Victory: Ukrainian Women in the Gulag (Harvard Series in Ukrainian Studies, Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard Univers...

Bruce Berglund, "The Fastest Game in the World: Hockey and the Globalization of Sports" (U California Press, 2020)

14 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Today we are joined by Bruce Berglund, author of The Fastest Game in the World: Hockey and the Globalization of Sports (University of California Pre...

Matthew Frear, "Belarus under Lukashenka: Adaptive Authoritarianism" (Routledge, 2020)

14 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Often called “Europe’s last dictator”, Alexander Lukashenka has ruled Belarus – a land-locked European country of close to 10 million people b...

Mark A. Waddell, "Magic, Science, and Religion in Early Modern Europe" (Cambridge UP, 2021)

09 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Today on New Books in History, Mark A. Waddell, Associate professor of History, Philosophy & Sociology of Science in the Department of History at Mic...

Siobhán Hearne, "Policing Prostitution: Regulating the Lower Classes in Late Imperial Russia" (Oxford UP, 2021)

07 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Siobhán Hearne's Policing Prostitution: Regulating the Lower Classes in Late Imperial Russia (Oxford UP, 2021) examines the complex world of commer...

Sasha Roseneil, "The Tenacity of the Couple-Norm: Intimate Citizenship Regimes in a Changing Europe." (UCL Press, 2020)

07 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Sasha Roseneil, Professor of Interdisciplinary Social Science at the Institute of Advanced Studies and Dean of the Faculty of Social and Historical St...

Arthur Koestler, "Darkness at Noon" (Scribner, 2019)

05 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Philip Boehm, who has translated over thirty books from German and Polish into English, has translated a recently discovered German manuscript Darkne...

Victoria Shmidt and Bernadette N. Jaworsky, "Historicizing Roma in Central Europe: Between Critical Whiteness and Epistemic Injustice" (Routledge 2021).

31 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In Central Europe, limited success in revisiting the role of science in the segregation of Roma reverberates with the yet-unmet call for contextualizi...

Roundtable on Medieval Conspiracy Theories

31 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Join us today for a roundtable conversation with three leading medieval scholars about the phenomenon of conspiracy theories in history.  Michael T. ...

Agnieszka Kościańska, "Gender, Pleasure, and Violence: The Construction of Expert Knowledge of Sexuality in Poland" (Indiana UP, 2021)

31 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Behind the Iron Curtain, the politics of sexuality and gender were, in many ways, more progressive than the West. While Polish citizens undoubtedly su...

Ayfer Karakaya-Stump, "The Kizilbash-Alevis in Ottoman Anatolia: Sufism, Politics, and Community" (Edinburgh UP)

30 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In today's program, Ayfer Karakaya-Stump, Associate Professor of History at the College of William and Mary, discusses her recently-published monogra...

Rebecca Bryant and Mete Hatay, "Sovereignty Suspended: Political Life in a So-Called State" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2020)

26 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Rebecca Bryant, Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Utrecht University, and Mete Hatay, the Senior Research Consultant at the Peace Research Institu...

Karl Schlögel, "The Scent of Empire: Chanel No. 5 and Red Moscow" (Polity, 2021)

24 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Today New Books in History features Karl Schlögel, Professor Emeritus at the Europa Universitat Viadrina, Frankfort to talk about his new book, Th...

Christian A. Nielsen, "Yugoslavia and Political Assassinations: The History and Legacy of Tito’s Campaign Against the Emigrés" (I. B. Tauris, 2020)

23 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Yugoslavia and Political Assassinations: The History and Legacy of Tito’s Campaign Against the Emigrés (Bloomsbury, 2020) is the first book in En...

R. Chris Davis, "Hungarian Religion, Romanian Blood: A Minority's Struggle for National Belonging, 1920–1945" (U Wisconsin Press, 2019)

22 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Amid the rising nationalism and racial politics that culminated in World War II, European countries wishing to purify their nations often forced unwan...

Oya Dursun-Özkanca, "Turkey–West Relations: The Politics of Intra-alliance Opposition" (Cambridge UP, 2019)

22 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

How do we make sense of Turkey’s recent turn against the West – after decades of Turkish cooperation and desire to be integrated into the European...

Jeffrey Shandler, "Yiddish: Biography of a Language" (Oxford UP, 2020)

22 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The most widely spoken Jewish language on the eve of the Holocaust, Yiddish continues to play a significant role in Jewish life today, from Hasidim fo...

Marina Zaloznaya, "The Politics of Bureaucratic Corruption in Post-Transitional Eastern Europe" (Cambridge UP, 2017)

18 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Using a mix of ethnographic, survey, and comparative historical methodologies, Marina Zaloznaya's The Politics of Bureaucratic Corruption in Post-Tra...

Alexander Maxwell, "Everyday Nationalism in Hungary: 1789-1867" (De Gruyter, 2019)

17 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Everyday Nationalism in Hungary: 1789-1867 (De Gruyter, 2019) examines Hungarian nationalism through everyday practices that will strike most readers...

Trevor Erlacher, "Ukrainian Nationalism in the Age of Extremes: An Intellectual Biography of Dmytro Dontsov" (Harvard UP, 2021)

15 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Ukrainian nationalism made worldwide news after the Euromaidan revolution and the outbreak of the Russo-Ukrainian war in 2014. Invoked by regional act...

Peter Hudis, ed., "The Letters Of Rosa Luxemburg" (Verso, 2013)

09 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Rosa Luxemburg occupies a complex place in our history partly because there are several different Rosa's one can find scattered across the world; the ...

Erik S. Herron, "Normalizing Corruption: Failures of Accountability in Ukraine" (U Michigan Press, 2020)

05 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Erik S. Herron’s Normalizing Corruption: Failures of Accountability in Ukraine (University of Michigan Press, 2020) zeroes in on the mechanisms th...

David Stavrou, "Zion: The Israeli Diaspora in Europe" (Pardes, 2019)

02 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The meaning of being an immigrant has changed significantly in the 21st century. The internet, social media and networks, cost of travels, homeland pr...

Roger R. Reese, "The Imperial Russian Army in Peace, War, and Revolution, 1856-1917" (U Kansas Press, 2019)

22 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Roger Reese’s recent book, The Imperial Russian Army in Peace, War, and Revolution, 1856-1917 (University of Kansas, 2019), takes a deep dive into...

Naomi Seidman, "Sarah Schenirer and the Bais Yaakov Movement: A Revolution in the Name of Tradition" (Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2019)

19 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Sarah Schenirer is one of the unsung heroes of twentieth-century Orthodox Judaism. In Sarah Schenirer and the Bais Yaakov Movement: A Revolution in t...

Łukasz Stanek, "Architecture in Global Socialism: Eastern Europe, West Africa, and the Middle East in the Cold War" (Princeton UP, 2020)

11 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In the course of the Cold War, architects, planners, and construction companies from socialist Eastern Europe engaged in a vibrant collaboration with ...

Nina Jankowicz, "How to Lose the Information War: Russia, Fake News, and the Future of Conflict" (Bloomsbury, 2020)

10 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Barely a month after the riot on the Capitol Building, the United States is no more adept at fending off foreign information operations than it was fo...

Katherine Zubovich, "Moscow Monumental: Soviet Skyscrapers and Urban Life in Stalin's Capital" (Princeton UP, 2020)

10 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In Moscow Monumental: Soviet Skyscrapers and Urban Life in Stalin’s Capital (Princeton University Press, 2021), Professor Katherine Zubovich of th...

András Körösényi, "The Orbán Regime: Plebiscitary Leader Democracy in the Making" (Routledge, 2020)

03 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

As Hungary's opposition parties form themselves into an unlikely pre-electoral coalition, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán faces the first genuine challen...

Andrea Bohlman, "Musical Solidarities: Political Action and Music in Late Twentieth-Century Poland" (Oxford UP, 2020)

26 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Musical Solidarities: Political Action and Music in Late Twentieth-Century Poland (Oxford University Press, 2020) by Andrea Bohlman is a study of the...

Kathryn Ciancia, "On Civilization's Edge: A Polish Borderland in the Interwar World" (Oxford UP, 2020)

22 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

As a resurgent Poland emerged at the end of World War I, an eclectic group of Polish border guards, state officials, military settlers, teachers, acad...

David Nasaw, "The Last Million: Europe's Displaced Persons from World War to Cold War" (Penguin, 2020)

19 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In May 1945, German forces surrendered to the Allied powers, putting an end to World War II in Europe. But the aftershocks of global military conflict...

F. B. Chang and S. T. Rucker-Chang, "Roma Rights and Civil Rights: A Transatlantic Comparison" (Cambridge UP, 2020)

18 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

F. B. Chang and S. T. Rucker-Chang's Roma Rights and Civil Rights: A Transatlantic Comparison (Cambridge UP, 2020) tackles the movements for - and e...

Gábor Scheiring, "The Retreat of Liberal Democracy: Authoritarian Capitalism and the Accumulative State in Hungary" (Palgrave, 2020)

14 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

As Donald Trump's presidency draws to a close, his opponents give thanks that he never developed a strategy or learned to use his powers and agencies ...

Carol Rittner and John K. Roth, "Advancing Holocaust Studies" (Routledge, 2020)

14 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

I think this is the fifth time I've interviewed John K. Roth for the podcast (and the second for Carol Rittner). He has always been relentlessly rea...

Serhy Yekelchyk, "Ukraine: What Everyone Needs to Know" (Oxford UP, 2020)

12 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In 2020, Oxford University Press published a second edition of Serhy Yekelchyk’s Ukraine: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford UP, 2020). This seri...

Olena Palko, "Making Ukraine Soviet: Literature and Cultural Politics under Lenin and Stalin" (Bloomsbury, 2020)

08 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Olena Palko’s Making Ukraine Soviet: Literature and Cultural Politics under Lenin and Stalin (Bloomsbury Academic Press 2020) offers an intriguing...

Leslie Waters, "Borders on the Move: Territorial Change and Forced Migration in the Hungarian-Slovak Borderlands, 1938-1948" (U Rochester Press, 2020)

31 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The movement of borders and people was a remarkably common experience for mid-twentieth-century Central and Eastern Europeans. Such was the case along...

Anna Hájková, "The Last Ghetto: An Everyday History of Theresienstadt" (Oxford UP, 2020)

30 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Anna Hájková's new book The Last Ghetto: An Everyday History of Theresienstadt (Oxford UP, 2020) is the first in-depth analytical history of a pri...

Myroslav Shkandrij, "Avant-Garde Art in Ukraine, 1910-1930: Contested Memory" (Academic Studies Press, 2019)

30 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Myroslav Shkandrij’s Avant-Garde Art in Ukraine, 1910-1930: Contested Memory (Academic Studies Press, 2019) offers an insight into the development...

Adam Fabry, "The Political Economy of Hungary: From State Capitalism to Authoritarian Neoliberalism" (Palgrave, 2019)

28 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Adam Fabry's book The Political Economy of Hungary: From State Capitalism to Authoritarian Neoliberalism (Palgrave, 2019) explores the political ec...

David Henig, "Remaking Muslim Lives: Everyday Islam in Postwar Bosnia and Herzegovina" (U Illinois Press, 2020)

18 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The violent disintegration of Yugoslavia and the cultural and economic dispossession caused by the collapse of socialism continue to force Muslims in ...

Mark Cornwall, "Sarajevo 1914: Sparking the First World War" (Bloomsbury, 2020)

17 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo. This key event in 20th-century history continues to fascin...

Sexuality, Gender, and Race in the Middle Ages: A Discussion with Roland Betancourt

15 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In Byzantine Intersectionality: Sexuality, Gender, and Race in the Middle Ages (Princeton University Press, 2020), Roland Betancourt reveals the fas...

Kiran Klaus Patel, "Project Europe: A History" (Cambridge UP, 2020)

15 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Project Europe made waves when it was published in German in 2018 (CH Beck) and was soon translated into English as Project Europe: A History (Camb...

Konstantina Zanou, "Transnational Patriotism in the Mediterranean, 1800-1850: Stammering the Nation" (Oxford UP, 2019)

14 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Konstantina Zanou is an Assistant Professor of Italian and Mediterranean Studies at Columbia University. Her captivating book Transnational Patriotis...

A. Achilli and S. Yekelchyk, "Cossacks in Jamaica, Ukraine at the Antipodes: Essays in Honor of Marko Pavlyshyn" (Academic Studies Press, 2020)

03 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Cossacks in Jamaica, Ukraine at the Antipodes: Essays in honor of Marko Pavlyshyn (Academic Studies Press, 2020) is an impressive volume of essays on...

Dominique Kirchner Reill, "The Fiume Crisis: Life in the Wake of the Habsburg Empire" (Harvard UP, 2020)

02 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The Fiume Crisis: Life in the Wake of the Habsburg Empire (Harvard UP, 2020) recasts what we know about the birth of fascism, the rise of nationalism...

Andrea Pető, "The Women of the Arrow Cross Party: Invisible Hungarian Perpetrators in the Second World War" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020)

27 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Andrea Pető's book The Women of the Arrow Cross Party: Invisible Hungarian Perpetrators in the Second World War (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020) analyses...

Cristina A. Bejan, "Intellectuals and Fascism in Interwar Romania: The Criterion Association" (Palgrave MacMillan, 2019)

23 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In 1930s Bucharest, some of the country's most brilliant young intellectuals converged to form the Criterion Association. Bound by friendship and the ...

Mark Gilbert, "European Integration: A Political History" (Rowman and Littlefield, 2020)

20 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

“Awareness of the EU's undeniable past and present importance can - and has - led to complacency and hubris. There is nothing inevitable about Europ...

Tatiana Zhurzhenko, "War and Memory in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017)

19 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

War and Memory in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017) analyzes the shaping of the commemorative space in the three post-Soviet cou...

M. Wodziński and W. Spallek, "Historical Atlas of Hasidism" (Princeton UP, 2018)

18 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The Historical Atlas of Hasidism (Princeton UP, 2018) is the first cartographic reference book on one of the modern era’s most vibrant and importan...

Jill Massino, "Ambiguous Transitions: Gender, the State, and Everyday Life in Socialist and Postsocialist Romania" (Berghahn, 2019)

10 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, we meet Dr. Jill Massino, an associate professor of history at the University of North Carolina who is fascinated researching everyda...

Erica Marat, "The Politics of Police Reform: Society against the State in Post-Soviet Countries" (Oxford UP, 2018)

05 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In her book, The Politics of Police Reform: Society against the State in Post-Soviet Countries (Oxford University Press, 2018), Erica Marat provides a...

Y. Gorlizski and O. Khlevniuk, "Substate Dictatorship Networks, Loyalty, and Institutional Change in the Soviet Union" (Yale UP, 2020)

02 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Starting after the Second World War and taking the story through to the Brezhnev era, Yoram Gorlizski and Oleg Khlevniuk's Substate Dictatorship Netwo...

Andrew Demshuk, "Bowling for Communism: Urban Ingenuity at the End of East Germany" (Cornell UP, 2020)

26 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Bowling for Communism: Urban Ingenuity at the End of East Germany (Cornell University Press, 2020) illuminates how civic life functioned in Leipzig, E...

Rachel Manekin, "The Rebellion of the Daughters: Jewish Women Runaways in Habsburg Galicia" (Princeton UP, 2020)

21 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, over three hundred young Jewish women from Orthodox, mostly Hasidic, homes in Western Galicia (n...

Alexey Golubev, "The Things of Life: Materiality in Late Soviet Russia" (Cornell UP, 2020)

20 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The Things of Life: Materiality in Late Soviet Russia (Cornell UP, 2020) is a social and cultural history of material objects and spaces during the la...

H. Shelest and M. Rabinovych, "Decentralization, Regional Diversity, and Conflict: The Case of Ukraine" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020)

19 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The articles presented in Decentralization, Regional Diversity, and Conflict: The Case of Ukraine (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020) aim to explore the curren...

Jessica Zychowicz, "Superfluous Women: Art, Feminism, and Revolution in Twenty-First Century Ukraine" (U Toronto Press, 2020)

16 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Superfluous Women: Art, Feminism, and Revolution in Twenty-First Century Ukraine (University of Toronto Press, 2020) tells the unique story of a gener...

A. Wylegala and M. Glowacka-Grajper, "The Burden of the Past: History, Memory, and Identity in Contemporary Ukraine" (Indiana UP, 2020)

16 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In a century marked by totalitarian regimes, genocide, mass migrations, and shifting borders, the concept of memory in Eastern Europe is often synonym...

Stephen Wall, "Reluctant European: Britain and the European Union from 1945 to Brexit" (Oxford UP, 2020)

09 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In January 2020, the UK became the first country to leave the European Union after a troubled 47-year membership. What was at the core of the country’...

Patrick Honohan, "Currency, Credit and Crisis: Central Banking in Ireland and Europe" (Cambridge UP, 2020)

08 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

For readers – including non-economists – who want to get to grips with the nature and scale of the last financial crisis, how it was managed and m...

Jeremy Black, "The Holocaust: History and Memory" (Indiana UP, 2016)

08 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The event that is commonly labeled as the ‘Holocaust’, was one of the most horrific of the Twentieth Century. It is also one of the most popularl...

Jennifer J. Carroll, "Narkomania: Drugs, HIV, and Citizenship in Ukraine" (Cornell UP, 2019)

06 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Against the backdrop of a post-Soviet state set aflame by geopolitical conflict and violent revolution, Narkomania: Drugs, HIV, and Citizenship in Ukr...

Sheri Berman, "Democracy and Dictatorship in Europe: From the Ancien Régime to the Present Day" (Oxford UP, 2019)

06 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

At the end of the twentieth century, many believed the story of European political development had come to an end. Modern democracy began in Europe, b...

David R. Marples, "Understanding Ukraine and Belarus: A Memoir" (E-International Relations, 2020)

02 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

David R. Marples' new book Understanding Ukraine and Belarus: A Memoir (E-International Relations, 2020) describes the author's academic journey from...

John Connelly, "From Peoples into Nations: A History of Eastern Europe" (Princeton UP, 2020)

30 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

John Connelly’s new book – From Peoples into Nations: A History of Eastern Europe (Princeton University Press, 2020) – is an encyclopedic but li...

Kenneth Austin, "The Jews and the Reformation" (Yale UP, 2020)

21 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Kenneth Austin, who teaches history at the University of Bristol, UK, is well-known for his work on Jews and Judaism in early modern Europe. His new b...

Anita Kurimay, "Queer Budapest, 1873-1961" (U Chicago Press, 2020)

15 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

By the dawn of the twentieth century, Budapest was a burgeoning cosmopolitan metropolis. Known at the time as the “Pearl of the Danube,” it boaste...

Jovana Babović, "Metropolitan Belgrade: Culture and Class in Interwar Yugoslavia" (U Pittsburgh Press, 2018)

03 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Jovana Babović’s Metropolitan Belgrade: Culture and Class in Interwar Yugoslavia (University of Pittsburgh Press) examines the ways in which middle...

Marco Puleri, "Ukrainian, Russophone, (Other) Russian: Hybrid Identities and Narratives in Post-Soviet Culture and Politics" (Peter Lang, 2020)

02 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Marco Puleri’s Ukrainian, Russophone, (Other) Russian: Hybrid Identities and Narratives in Post-Soviet Culture and Politics (Peter Lang, 2020) exami...

Adam Teller, "Rescue the Surviving Souls: The Great Jewish Refugee Crisis of the 17th Century" (Princeton UP, 2020)

25 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

A refugee crisis of huge proportions erupted as a result of the mid-seventeenth-century wars in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Tens of thousands ...