The premier source for a comprehensive update and overview of developments in the most rapidly changing region in the world.

Each edition features thematic coverage of regional, political, and economic developments.

Chapters on every country of the region cover essential historical background as well as current developments and domestic and foreign policy issues.

Supplementing the chapters are maps, data boxes, documents, and sidebars.

This is a new release of the original 1936 edition.

This is the story of the critical role played by Radio Free Europe during the Cold War, as recounted by veteran RFE official J. F. Brown, who served as director from 1978 to 1983. Jim Brown had written about Eastern Europe from RFE, but never about RFE until he wrote this book. He conveys his understanding of how Radio Free Europe functioned as a decentralized organization that empowered exiles, while also conveying what it, and they, could and could not offer East European listeners. Jim Brown's explanations of the function of the central news department as an internal news agency, of discussions with and trust of exile broadcast chiefs, of RFE's cautious approach to broadcasting to Poland under martial law after 1981 to cite only three examples from the book illuminate the editorial policies and internal relationships that made RFE a success. His portraits of key personalities over the years help us understand that RFE was not just an institution; it was a unique multinational group of people. (From the "Foreword" by A. Ross Johnson). "The historical analysis Brown brings is extremely valuable and adds the insight of a first rate analyst to such topics as the contrast between how RFE handled the Hungarian and Polish events of the 1950s, the 'Czech spring' in 1968, the Gomulka period in Poland, the developing independence of Ceausescu's Romania, etc. All are given perceptive treatment." Eugene R. Parta, author with A. Ross Johnson of Cold War Broadcasting: Impact on the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. A Collection of Studies and Documents. "I know of no other books on RFE by an insider who had so much experience with the Radios and how they were operated. It is] very well written, well organized, and a fascinating read." -Yale Richmond, cultural affairs officer, U.S. Foreign Service (ret.), author of Practicing Public Diplomacy: A Cold War Odyssey.

Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

After the exuberance that marked the revolutions of 1989, the countries of Eastern Europe have faced the breathtakingly ambitious task of remaking their societies. Simultaneously they have sought to build liberal democracies based on market economics, while confronting reassertions of claims for national independence long suppressed. Taking up where his previous book Surge to Freedom ended, J. F. Brown's Hopes and Shadows analyzes the results of the first four years of Eastern Europe's separation from communist rule and the prospects for the future.
The forces at work in the midst of this revolution are examined from a perspective that is necessarily both historical and contemporary as the complex relationship between the tasks that face these countries and the legacy of their communist and pre-communist past shape the difficult present. As the usefulness of the designation Eastern Europe is itself questioned, Brown provides both regional and country-by-country analysis of the political situation. The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Poland are grouped together, as are Romania, Bulgaria, and Albania, to address questions such as the development of liberal democratic culture, the activation of democratic institutions and procedures, and the future of former communist bureaucracies. He considers the former Yugoslavia--now torn violently apart--largely as a separate case. The theoretical, political, social, financial, cultural, and psychological dimensions of the transition from socialism to a market economy are discussed in detail. The final aspect of this revolution, the failure of which most immediately threatens the entire process, is the attempt to build new and stable national statehoods. Brown explores the history and impact of the current reemergence of nationalism and the dangers it represents.
A comprehensive and authoritative survey, J. F. Brown's analysis and presentation of the contemporary Eastern European political landscape will be essential reading for scholars and specialists and of great interest to general readers.

"The Grooves of Change" is the culmination of J. F. Brown's esteemed career as an analyst of Eastern Europe. He traces events in this diverse and disruption-riddled region from the communist era to the years of transition after the fall of the Berlin Wall to the present. Brown also provides specific analyses of the development of liberal democratic culture in the former communist countries of Eastern Europe--Albania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the successor states of Yugoslavia.
While acknowledging that the term "Eastern Europe" began to fall into disuse with the end of the cold war, Brown uses it as a framework for discussing the enduring features of the modern history of this region: its basic continuity, the prominence of ethnic and national factors, and its dependence on great powers or combinations of powers outside it. He explains the significance of the growing gulf between East Central Europe and South Eastern Europe, the overall political and economic deprivation and its effect on the people, the urgency of change, and the complex dynamics within Eastern Europe that have defied definitions and generalization. Finally, Brown points to the need for continuing assistance by the United States and the West and suggests what the twenty-first century may bring to this constantly changing part of the world.
Those seeking a clear overview of events in Eastern Europe during the recent psat and the state of these nations now will benefit from this incisive study by J. F. Brown.