New Books in Eastern European Studies

Natan M. Meir, "Stepchildren of the Shtetl" (Stanford UP, 2020)

19 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Memoirs of Jewish life in the east European shtetl often recall the hekdesh (town poorhouse) and its residents: beggars, madmen and madwomen, disabled...

Will Smiley, "From Slaves to Prisoners of War: The Ottoman Empire, Russia, and International Law" (Oxford UP, 2018)

18 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In his book From Slaves to Prisoners of War: The Ottoman Empire, Russia, and International Law (Oxford University Press, 2018), Will Smiley examines t...

Sonya Bilocerkowycz, "On Our Way Home from the Revolution: Reflections on Ukraine" (Mad Creek Books, 2019)

10 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

It’s been a difficult year in America. From plague, to protests, to politics, there have never been so many lives at stake, nor so many questions ab...

Roger Moorhouse, "Poland 1939: The Outbreak of World War II" (Basic Books, 2020)

22 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Historian and academic Roger Moorhouse, revisits the opening campaign of World War II, the German invasion of Poland in September 1939., in his new bo...

Diana T. Kudaibergenova, "Toward Nationalizing Regimes: Conceptualizing Power and Identity in the Post-Soviet Realm" (U Pittsburgh Press, 2020)

21 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The collapse of the Soviet Union famously opened new venues for the theories of nationalism and the study of processes and actors involved in these ne...

Jeremy Black, "War in Europe: 1450 to the Present" (Bloomsbury Academic, 2016)

10 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

War in Europe: 1450 to the Present (Bloomsbury Academic, 2016) is a masterful overview of war and military development in Europe since 1450, bringing ...

Francine Hirsch, "Soviet Judgement at Nuremberg" (Oxford UP, 2020)

09 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

How did an authoritarian regime help lay the cornerstones of human rights and international law? Soviet Judgement at Nuremberg: A New History of the I...

Hope M. Harrison, "After the Berlin Wall: Memory and the Making of the New Germany, 1989 to the Present" (Cambridge UP, 2019)

06 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In her new book, After the Berlin Wall: Memory and the Making of the New Germany, 1989 to the Present (Cambridge University Press, 2019), Hope M. Harr...

Stephan Talty, "The Good Assassin" (HMH, 2020)

06 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

History that reads like a thriller; The Good Assassin: How A Mossad Agent and a Band of Survivors Hunted Down The Butcher of Latvia (Houghton Mifflin ...

Yitzhak Lewis, "Permanent Beginning: R. Nachman of Braslav and Jewish Literary Modernity" (SUNY Press, 2020)

29 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The Hasidic leader R. Nachman of Braslav (1772–1810) has held a place in the Jewish popular imagination for more than two centuries. Some see him as...

Gabriel Finder, "Justice behind the Iron Curtain: Nazis on Trial in Communist Poland" (U Toronto Press, 2018)

22 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

When Americans think about trials of Holocaust perpetrators, they generally think of the Nuremberg Trials or the trial of Adolf Eichmann or perhaps of...

Paul D’Anieri, "Ukraine and Russia: From Civilized Divorce to Uncivil War" (Cambridge UP, 2019)

17 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Paul D’Anieri’s Ukraine and Russia: From Civilized Divorce to Uncivil War (Cambridge University Press, 2019) documents in a nuanced way the develo...

Why Did the Allies Win World War One?

11 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The Great War was perhaps the greatest single upheaval of the 20th century. While World War II saw more lives lost, in terms of the shock to European/...

Martina Cvajner, "Soviet Signoras: Personal and Collective Transformations in Eastern European Migration" (U Chicago, 2019)

09 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Jana Byars talks with Martina Cvajner, Assistant Professor of Sociology in the Department of Psychology and Cognitive Sciences at the University of Tr...

Alexander Gendler, "Khurbm 1914-1922: Prelude to the Holocaust" (Varda Books, 2019)

08 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The murder of two-thirds of European Jews, referred to by many as the Holocaust, did not begin June 22, 1941, with the German invasion of the Soviet U...

Stanislav Kulchytsky, "The Famine of 1932-1933 in Ukraine: An Anatomy of the Holodomor" (CIUS Press, 2018)

05 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Stanislav Kulchytsky’s The Famine of 1932-1933 in Ukraine: An Anatomy of the Holodomor (CIUS Press, 2018) presents a meticulous research that unveil...

Brian Greene, "Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe" (Random House, 2020)

02 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Brian Greene is a Professor of Mathematics and Physics at Columbia University in the City of New York, where he is the Director of the Institute for S...

Anthony Valerio, "Semmelweis: The Women's Doctor" (Zantedeschi Books, 2019)

01 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Though his advice has saved the lives of millions of people, the name Ignaz Semmelweis is not one commonly known today. In his book Anthony Valerio’...

Andrei Kushnir, "Epic Journey: Life and Times of Wasyl Kushnir" (Academic Studies Press, 2020)

01 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In Epic Journey: Life and Times of Wasyl Kushnir (Academic Studies Press, 2020), Andrei Kushnir documents the story of his father, Wasyl Kushnir, who ...

Elissa Bemporad, "Legacy of Blood: Jews, Pogroms, and Ritual Murder in the Lands of the Soviets" (Oxford UP, 2019)

26 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The history of antisemitism in Europe stretches back as far as Ancient Rome, but persecutions of Jews became widespread during the Crusades, beginning...

Alex Jeffrey, "The Edge of Law: Legal Geographies of a War Crimes Court" (Cambridge UP, 2020)

29 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

What happens when a court tries to become a “new” court? What happens to the many artifacts of its history—previous laws and jurisprudence, the ...

Leslie M. Harris, "Slavery and the University: Histories and Legacies" (U Georgia Press, 2019)

28 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Slavery and the University: Histories and Legacies (University of Georgia Press, 2019), edited by Leslie M. Harris, James T. Campbell, and Alfred L. B...

Alexander Watson, "The Fortress: The Siege of Przemysl and the Making of Europe's Bloodlands" (Basic Books, 2020)

06 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The opposing powers had already suffered casualties on a scale previously unimaginable by October 1914. On both the Western and Eastern fronts elabora...

Kevin O'Connor, "The House of Hemp and Butter: A History of Old Riga" (NIUP, 2019)

01 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Latvia's elegant capital, Riga, is one of Europe's best-kept secrets. Strategically located on the Eastern Baltic coast at the mouth of the River Daug...

Great Books: Amir Eshel on Paul Celan's Poetry

31 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Paul Celan's poetry marks the end of European modernism: he is the last poet of the era where the poetic "I" could center a subjective vision of the w...

Sir John Redwood, "We Don't Believe You: Why Populists and the Establishment See the World Differently" (Bite-Sized Books, 2019)

31 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In We Don't Believe You: Why Populists and the Establishment See the World Differently (Bite-Sized Book, 2019), Sir John Redwood gives us fresh insigh...

Matt Cook, "Sleight of Mind: 75 Ingenious Paradoxes in Mathematics, Physics, and Philosophy" (MIT Press, 2020)

30 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Paradox is a sophisticated kind of magic trick. A magician's purpose is to create the appearance of impossibility, to pull a rabbit from an empty hat....

Irina Georgescu, "Carpathia: Food from the Heart of Romania” (Interlink Books, 2020)

27 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Romania is a land of crossroads: of empire, of geography, and culture, shaped by centuries of rule by the Greeks, Ottomans, and Hapsburgs. The dramati...

David Stahel, "Retreat from Moscow: A New History of Germany's Winter Campaign, 1941-1942" (FSG, 2019)

27 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Germany’s winter campaign of 1941–1942 is commonly seen as the Wehrmacht's first defeat. In Retreat from Moscow: A New History of Germany's Winter...

Steven Seegel, "Map Men: Transnational Lives and Deaths of Geographers in the Making of East Central Europe" (U Chicago Press, 2018)

24 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Steven Seegel’s Map Men: Transnational Lives and Deaths of Geographers in the Making of East Central Europe (University of Chicago Press, 2018) is a...

Jessie Labov, "Transatlantic Central Europe: Contesting Geography and Redefining Culture beyond the Nation" (Central European UP, 2019)

20 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

While there are still occasional uses of it today, the term "Central Europe" carries little of the charge that it did in the 1980s and early 1990s, an...

Nancy Sinkoff, "From Left to Right: Lucy S. Dawidowicz, the New York Intellectuals, and the Politics of Jewish History" (Wayne State UP, 2020)

17 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

From Left to Right: Lucy S. Dawidowicz, the New York Intellectuals, and the Politics of Jewish History (Wayne State University Press, 2020) is the fi...

Paul Hanebrink, "A Specter Haunting Europe: The Myth of Judeo-Bolshevism" (Harvard UP, 2018)

16 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In A Specter Haunting Europe: The Myth of Judeo-Bolshevism (Harvard University Press, 2018), Paul Hanebrink, Professor of History and Jewish Studie...

The Origins of World War One

12 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Who or what originated and/or caused the Great War from breaking out in July 1914? Was it Serbia with its expansionist and aggressive designs on Austr...

Larry Wolff, "Woodrow Wilson and the Reimagining of Eastern Europe" (Stanford UP, 2020)

06 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

At the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, where the victorious Allied powers met to reenvision the map of Europe in the aftermath of World War I, President ...

Olivier Roy, "Is Europe Christian?" (Oxford UP, 2020)

03 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Olivier Roy, who is professor at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies in the European University Institute, Florence, Italy, is one of the m...

Sarah Abrevaya Stein, "A Sephardic Journey Through the Twentieth Century" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019)

28 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In Family Papers: A Sephardic Journey Through the Twentieth Century (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019), Sarah Abrevaya Stein weaves a narrative tapestr...

Aliide Naylor, "The Shadow in the East: Vladimir Putin and the New Baltic Front" (I.B. Tauris, 2020)

27 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The Baltics are about to be thrust onto the world stage. With a 'belligerent' Vladimir Putin to their east (and 'expansionist' NATO to their west), Es...

Phillipa Chong, “Inside the Critics’ Circle: Book Reviewing in Uncertain Times” (Princeton UP, 2020)

25 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

How does the world of book reviews work? In Inside the Critics’ Circle: Book Reviewing in Uncertain Times (Princeton University Press, 2020), Philli...

Alex J. Kay and David Stahel, "Mass Violence in Nazi-Occupied Europe" (Indiana UP, 2018)

11 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Alex J. Kay (senior lecture of History at Potsdam University in Berlin) and David Stahel (senior lecturer in History at the University of New South Wa...

K. Linder et al., "Going Alt-Ac: A Guide to Alternative Academic Careers" (Stylus Publishing, 2020)

30 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

If you’re a grad student facing the ugly reality of finding a tenure-track job, you could easily be forgiven for thinking about a career change. How...

Wulf Gruner, "The Holocaust in Bohemia and Moravia: Czech Initiatives, German Policies, Jewish Responses" (Berghahn Books, 2019)

23 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Holocaust research tends to concentrate on certain geographic regions. We know much about the Holocaust in Poland, Germany and Western Europe. We are ...

Astrid M. Eckert, "West Germany and the Iron Curtain: Environment, Economy, and Culture in the Borderlands" (Oxford UP, 2019)

22 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

How did the Iron Curtain shape the Federal Republic of Germany? How did the internal border become a proving ground for rival ideologies? West Germany...

Gediminas Lankauskas, "The Land of Weddings and Rain: Nation and Modernity in Post-Socialist Lithuania" (U Toronto Press, 2015)

10 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Gediminas Lankauskas’ new book The Land of Weddings and Rain: Nation and Modernity in Post-Socialist Lithuania (University of Toronto Press, 2015) i...

Christopher A. Molnar, "Memory, Politics, and Yugoslav Migrations to Postwar Germany" (Indiana UP, 2018)

03 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

During Europe’s 2015 refugee crisis, more than a hundred thousand asylum seekers from the western Balkans sought refuge in Germany. This was nothing...

The Treaty of Versailles One Hundred Years On

27 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The Versailles Treaty of 1919, celebrates its one-hundred anniversary this year. And, yet unlike the more recent centenaries, such as that of the outb...

April Eisman, "Bernhard Heisig and the Fight for Modern Art in East Germany" (Camden House, 2018)

20 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In her book, Bernhard Heisig and the Fight for Modern Art in East Germany (Camden House, 2018), April Eisman examines one of East Germany's most succe...

Giuliana Chamedes, "A Twentieth-Century Crusade: The Vatican’s Battle to Remake Christian Europe" (Harvard UP, 2019)

18 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Giuliana Chamedes' new book A Twentieth-Century Crusade: The Vatican’s Battle to Remake Christian Europe (Harvard University Press, 2019) explores h...

Katya Cengel, "From Chernobyl with Love" (U Nebraska Press, 2019)

11 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Katya Cengel’s From Chernobyl with Love: Reporting from the Ruins of the Soviet Union (University of Nebraska Press, 2019) is an engaging memoir of ...

Oleksandra Humenna, "Ukraine 2030: The Doctrine of Sustainable Development" (ADEF-Ukraine, 2018)

04 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Ukraine 2030: The Doctrine of Sustainable Development (ADEF-Ukraine LTD, 2018) offers a program that includes complex strategies for the economic deve...

Alberto Cairo, "How Charts Lie: Getting Smarter about Visual Information" (Norton, 2019)

03 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

We’ve all heard that a picture is worth a thousand words, but what if we don’t understand what we’re looking at? Social media has made charts, i...

Emanuela Grama, "Socialist Heritage: The Politics of Past and Place in Romania" (Indiana UP, 2019)

02 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Focusing on Romania from 1945 to 2016, Emanuela Grama's new book Socialist Heritage: The Politics of Past and Place in Romania (Indiana University Pre...

Srdja Popovic, "Blueprint for Revolution" (Spiegel and Grau, 2015)

02 Dec 2019

Contributed by Lukas

20 years ago, Srdja Popovic was part of a revolution — literally. He was a founding member of the Otpor! movement that ousted Serbia Slobodan Milsov...

Daniel Schwartz, "Ghetto: The History of a Word" (Harvard UP, 2019)

19 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The word “ghetto” has taken on different meanings since its coinage in the 16th century. The uses of this term have varied considerably, from its ...

Michael Khodarkovsky, "Russia's 20th Century: A Journey in 100 Histories" (Bloomsbury Academic, 2019)

18 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Dissecting and digesting the history of the Soviet "experiment" can be a frustrating exercise for academics and a Sisphyan task for laymen; the endeav...

Daniel Reynolds, "Postcards from Auschwitz: Holocaust Tourism and the Meaning of Remembrance" (NYU Press, 2018)

13 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Millions of tourists visit Holocaust museums and memorials every year. Holocaust tourism is a thriving industry and plays a crucial role in Holocaust ...

Donald Ostrowski, "Europe, Byzantium, and the 'Intellectual Silence' of Rus’ Culture" (Arc Humanities Press, 2018)

06 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In Europe, Byzantium, and the “Intellectual Silence” of Rus’ Culture (Arc Humanities Press, 2018), Dr. Donald Ostrowski pens a fresh look at an...

Kathryn Conrad on University Press Publishing

03 Nov 2019

Contributed by Lukas

As you may know, university presses publish a lot of good books. In fact, they publish thousands of them every year. They are different from most trad...

Tamara Hundorova, "The Post-Chornobyl Library: Ukrainian Postmodernism of the 1990s" (ASP, 2019)

29 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Tamara Hundorova’s The Post-Chornobyl Library: Ukrainian Postmodernism of the 1990s (Academic Studies Press, 2019) is a compelling study of the lite...

J. Neuhaus, "Geeky Pedagogy: A Guide for Intellectuals, Introverts, and Nerds Who Want to Be Effective Teachers" (West Virginia UP, 2019)

24 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The things that make people academics -- as deep fascination with some arcane subject, often bordering on obsession, and a comfort with the solitude t...

Vladimir Dzuro, "The Investigator: Demons of the Balkan War" (U Nebraska Press, 2019)

22 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In his new book, The Investigator: Demons of the Balkan War (University of Nebraska Press, 2019), Vladimir Dzuro, a retired Czech police commissioner,...

Perin Gürel, "The Limits of Westernization: A Cultural History of America in Turkey" (Columbia UP, 2017)

06 Oct 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In today’s podcast, host Robert Elliott speaks with Dr. Perin Gürel about her new book The Limits of Westernization: A Cultural History of America ...

Jasper Heinzen, "Making Prussians, Raising Germans: A Cultural History of Prussian State-Building after Civil War, 1866-1935" (Cambridge UP, 2017)

19 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

How does civil war shape state building and national identity over the long term? What do the underlying conflicts between Hanoverians and the Prussia...

Alma Jeftić, "Social Aspects of Memory: Stories of Victims and Perpetrators from Bosnia-Herzegovina" (Routledge, 2019)

02 Sep 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In her new book, Social Aspects of Memory: Stories of Victims and Perpetrators from Bosnia-Herzegovina (Routledge, 2019). Alma Jeftić presents the co...

A. Lakhtikova, A. Brintlinger, and I. Glushchenko, "Seasoned Socialism: Gender and Food in Late Soviet Everyday Life" (Indiana UP, 2019)

01 Aug 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In their introduction to Seasoned Socialism: Gender & Food in Late Soviet Everyday Life (Indiana University Press, 2019), Anastasia Lakhtikova, Angela...

James W. Pardew, "Peacemakers: American Leadership and the End of Genocide in the Balkans" (U Kentucky Press, 2017)

19 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In his book  Peacemakers: American Leadership and the End of Genocide in the Balkans (University of Kentucky Press, 2017), Ambassador James W. Pardew...

Sergei Zhuk, "Soviet Americana: The Cultural History of Russian and Ukrainian Americanists" (I.B. Tauris, 2018)

09 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Sergei Zhuk’s Soviet Americana: The Cultural History of Russian and Ukrainian Americanists (Tauris, 2018) offers an insightful investigation of the ...

Caroline Boggis-Rolfe, "The Baltic Story: A Thousand Year History of Its Lands, Sea, and Peoples" (Amberley, 2019)

08 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The story of the littoral nations of the Baltic Sea is like a saga, that genre perfected by those tenacious inhabitants of the rocky shores of this an...

Stephen Hardy and Andrew Holman, "Hockey: A Global History" (U Illinois Press, 2018)

03 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Today we are joined by Stephen Hardy, retired professor of kinesiology and affiliate professor of history at the University of New Hampshire, and Andr...

Erik Sjöberg, "The Making of the Greek Genocide: Contested Memories of the Ottoman Greek Catastrophe" (Berghahn Books, 2018)

01 Jul 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Most of the time, memory studies focuses on well-known case studies.  The result Is that we know lots about commemoration and memory regarding the Ho...

Kristen Ghodsee, "Red Hangover: Legacies of Twentieth-Century Communism" (Duke UP, 2017)

27 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

I am a child of the so-called transition in Bulgaria and growing-up I could never understand why my parents and grandparents would spend our family ga...

Vahram Ter-Matevosyan, "Turkey, Kemalism and the Soviet Union: Problems of Modernization, Ideology and Interpretation" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019)

13 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Vahram Ter-Matevosyan new book Turkey, Kemalism and the Soviet Union: Problems of Modernization, Ideology and Interpretation (Palgrave Macmillan,  ex...

Safet HadžiMuhamedović, "Waiting for Elijah: Time and Encounter in a Bosnian Landscape" (Berghahn Books, 2018)

05 Jun 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Set in the beautiful, sprawling Field of Gacko in southeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina, Safet HadžiMuhamedović’s book Waiting for Elijah: Time and ...

Norman Eisen, "The Last Palace: Europe's Turbulent Century in Five Lives and One Legendary House" (Crown, 2018)

31 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

As we’ve previously discussed, there are a lot of books about democracy filling book store and library shelves right now. Norman Eisen could have wr...

Timothy A. Sayle, "Enduring Alliance: A History of NATO and the Postwar Global Order" (Cornell UP, 2019)

28 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization regularly appears in newspapers and political science scholarship. Surprisingly, historians have yet to devote ...

John J. Curley, "Global Art and the Cold War" (Laurence King Publishers, 2019)

27 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

It was the passionate amateur painter, Winston Churchill, who introduced one of the Cold War’s key metaphors: The Iron Curtain. As John J. Curley ar...

Jeremy Black, "The World at War, 1914-1945" (Rowman and Littlefield, 2019)

22 May 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In one of his latest books, The World at War, 1914-1945 (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019), Professor of History at Exeter University, Jeremy Black, the mos...

Kate Brown, "Manuel for Survival: A Chernobyl Guide to the Future" (Norton, 2019)

19 Apr 2019

Contributed by Lukas

We cannot learn from disasters we do not yet understand. That conviction motivated historian Kate Brown to conduct groundbreaking research into nuclea...

Discussion of Massive Online Peer Review and Open Access Publishing

19 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In the information age, knowledge is power. Hence, facilitating the access to knowledge to wider publics empowers citizens and makes societies more de...

T. Troianowska and A. Polakowska, "Being Poland: A New History of Polish Literature and Culture since 1918" (U Toronto Press, 2018)

14 Mar 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Being Poland: A New History of Polish Literature and Culture since 1918 (University of Toronto Press, 2018) consists of sixty essays written by author...

Daniel Unowsky, “The Plunder: The 1898 Anti-Jewish Riots in Habsburg Galicia” (Stanford UP, 2018)

19 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Daniel Unowsky's book isn't about a genocide or other incident of mass violence.  Instead, The Plunder examines a series of riots against Jews in Hab...

Jessica Trisko Darden, Alexis Henshaw, and Ora Szekley, "Insurgent Women: Female Combatants in Civil Wars" (Georgetown UP, 2019)

11 Feb 2019

Contributed by Lukas

Insurgent Women: Female Combatants in Civil Wars (Georgetown University Press, 2019), investigates the mobilization of female fighters, women’s role...

Tim Mohr, "Burning Down the Haus: Punk Rock, Revolution, and the Fall of the Berlin Wall" (Algonquin Books, 2018)

17 Jan 2019

Contributed by Lukas

In Burning Down the Haus: Punk Rock, Revolution, and the Fall of the Berlin Wall (Algonquin Books, 2018), Tim Mohr examines East Germany punk rock and...

Thomas Borchert, “Educating Monks: Minority Buddhism on China’s Southwest Border” (U Hawaii Press, 2017)

07 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

What makes a Buddhist monk? This is the motivating question for Thomas Borchert, Professor of Religion at the University of Vermont, as he explores th...

Aleksandr V. Gevorkyan, "Transition Economies: Transformation, Development, and Society in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union" (Routledge, 2018)

07 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

We spoke with the author Aleksandr V. Gevorkyan. His book Transition Economies: Transformation, Development, and Society in Eastern Europe and the For...

McKenzie Wark, "General Intellects: Twenty-One Thinkers for the Twenty-First Century" (Verso, 2017)

06 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

McKenzie Wark’s new book offers 21 focused studies of thinkers working in a wide range of fields who are worth your attention. The chapters of Gener...

Laszlo Borhi, "Dealing with Dictators: The United States, Hungary, and East Central Europe 1942-1989" (Indiana UP, 2016)

04 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

How does a political regime function? What contributes to a regime’s longevity and subversion? Laszlo Borhi’s Dealing with Dictators: The United S...

Lee Bidgood, “Czech Bluegrass: Notes from the Heart of Europe” (U Illinois Press, 2017)

14 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Although bluegrass music is typically associated with the bluegrass state of Kentucky and Appalachia, the genre is actually played in many pockets all...

Naomi Seidman, “The Marriage Plot, Or, How Jews Fell In Love With Love, And With Literature” (Stanford UP, 2016)

29 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In The Marriage Plot, Or, How Jews Fell In Love With Love, And With Literature (Stanford University Press, 2016), Naomi Seidman, Chancellor Jackman P...

Jenifer Parks, “The Olympic Games, the Soviet Sport Bureaucracy, and the Cold War: Red Sport, Red Tape” (Lexington Books, 2016)

26 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Today we are joined by Jenifer Parks, Associate Professor of History at Rocky Mountain College. Parks is the author of The Olympic Games, the Soviet S...

David E. Fishman, “The Book Smugglers: Partisans, Poets, and the Race to Save Jewish Treasures from the Nazis” (ForeEdge, 2017)

23 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In The Book Smugglers: Partisans, Poets, and the Race to Save Jewish Treasures from the Nazis (ForeEdge, 2017), David E. Fishman, Professor of Jewis...

Ivan Simic, “Soviet Influences on Postwar Yugoslav Gender Policies” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018)

18 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In his new book Soviet Influences on Postwar Yugoslav Gender Policies (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), Ivan Simic explores how Yugoslav communists learned...

Raz Segal, “Genocide in the Carpathians: War, Social Breakdown and Mass Violence, 1914-1945” (Stanford UP, 2016)

17 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Telling the history of the Holocaust in Hungary has long meant telling the story of 1944.  Raz Segal, in his new book Genocide in the Carpathians: Wa...

Jonathan Waterlow, “It’s Only a Joke, Comrade! Humour, Trust and Everyday Life Under Stalin (1928-1941)” (CreateSpace, 2018)

04 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Jonathan Waterlow’s new book It’s Only a Joke, Comrade! Humour, Trust and Everyday Life Under Stalin (1928-1941) (CreateSpace, 2018) delves into t...

Azra Hromadžić, “Citizens of an Empty Nation: Youth and State-Making in Postwar Bosnia-Herzegovina” (U Pennsylvania Press, 2015)

12 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Despite all the buzz about the reconstruction of Mostar’s beautiful Old Bridge, Mostar remains a largely divided city, with Bosniaks on one side and...

Larisa Jašarević, “Health and Wealth on the Bosnian Market: Intimate Debt” (Indiana UP, 2017)

24 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

In her new book, Health and Wealth on the Bosnian Market: Intimate Debt (Indiana University Press, 2017), Larisa Jašarević traces the odd entangleme...

Eliyahu Stern, “Jewish Materialism: The Intellectual Revolution of the 1870s” (Yale UP, 2018)

18 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Jewish Materialism: The Intellectual Revolution of the 1870s (Yale University Press, 2018) is a radical new book that uncovers a hitherto ignored int...

William D. Godsey, “The Sinews of Habsburg Power: Lower Austria in a Fiscal-Military State, 1650-1820” (Oxford UP, 2018)

17 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

During the 17th and 18th centuries, Austria established itself as one of the dominant powers of Europe, despite possessing much more limited fiscal re...

Adis Maksic, “Ethnic Mobilization, Violence, and the Politics of Affect: The Serb Democratic Party and the Bosnian War” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017).

05 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Within the space of only six months in 1990, the Serb Democratic Party (SDS) managed to win the majority of the Serb vote in Bosnia-Herzegovina. In hi...

Andrii Danylenko, “From the Bible to Shakespeare: Pantelejmon Kuliš (1819-1897) and the Formation of Literary Ukrainian” (Academic Studies Press, 2016)

27 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

How does a language develop? What are the factors and processes that shape a language and reflect the changes it undergoes? These seemingly routine qu...