The year 1989 brought the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe. It was also the year that the economic theories of Reagan, Thatcher, and the Chicago School achieved global dominance. And it was these neoliberal ideas that largely determined the course of the political, economic, and social changes that transformed Europe--both east and west--over the next quarter century. This award-winning book provides the first comprehensive history of post-1989 Europe. Philipp Ther--a firsthand witness to many of the transformations, from Czechoslovakia during the Velvet Revolution to postcommunist Poland and Ukraine--offers a sweeping narrative filled with vivid details and memorable stories. He describes how liberalization, deregulation, and privatization had catastrophic effects on former Soviet Bloc countries. He refutes the idea that this economic "shock therapy" was the basis of later growth, arguing that human capital and the "transformation from below" determined economic success or failure. Most important, he shows how the capitalist West's effort to reshape Eastern Europe in its own likeness ended up reshaping Western Europe as well, in part by accelerating the pace and scope of neoliberal reforms in the West, particularly in reunified Germany. Finally, bringing the story up to the present, Ther compares events in Eastern and Southern Europe leading up to and following the 2008-9 global financial crisis. A compelling and often-surprising account of how the new order of the New Europe was wrought from the chaotic aftermath of the Cold War, this is essential reading for understanding Europe today.

An award-winning history of the transformation of Europe between 1989 and today In this award-winning book, Philipp Ther provides the first comprehensive history of post-1989 Europe, offering a sweeping narrative filled with vivid details and memorable stories. Europe since 1989 shows how liberalization, deregulation, and privatization had catastrophic effects on former Soviet Bloc countries. Ther refutes the idea that this economic "shock therapy" was the basis of later growth, arguing that human capital and the "transformation from below" determined economic success or failure. He also shows how the capitalist West's effort to reshape Eastern Europe in its own likeness ended up reshaping Western Europe, especially Germany. Bringing the story up to the present, Ther compares Eastern and Southern Europe after the 2008-9 global financial crisis. A compelling account of how the new order of Europe was wrought from the chaotic aftermath of the Cold War, Europe since 1989 is essential reading for understanding post-Brexit Europe and the present dangers for democracy and the European Union.

Treat yourself to FULL SPEED by Janet Evanovich and Charlotte Hughes. Praise for the FULL series: 'A fine romance with plenty of kisses' Mirror; 'A wild mix of intrigue, sex and pyrotechnics' The Times Their enemies haven't got a prayer... Journalist Jamie Swift and millionaire Max Holt drive each other crazy when they work together - but they just can't stop. Especially when they both have their reasons for wanting to investigate a charismatic preacher with suspected ties to the Mob and a long history with his female church members. The trouble is, someone has got wind of Jamie and Max's snooping around, and is pretty eager to introduce them to their Maker - a lot sooner than either Jamie or Max had planned...

Treat yourself to FULL BLAST by Janet Evanovich and Charlotte Hughes. Praise for the FULL series: 'A fine romance with plenty of kisses' Mirror; 'A wild mix of intrigue, sex and pyrotechnics' The Times Dating can be murder... Jamie Swift is facing the story of a lifetime that could make or break her. Someone from her newspaper's Lonely Heart's column has murdered a local woman. To find the killer, and save her newspaper, Jamie will have to call in mega-handsome millionaire genius Max Holt, who right now is still frustratingly far from becoming anything more than just her business partner. But the real problem isn't that Jamie wants to get closer to Max, it's that the killer wants to get closer to Jamie.

Readers will go nuts for the new Kate Holly novel.
Psychologist Kate Holly is about to get evicted from her office, and her best option may be to share space with her jacuzzi-loving ex-boyfriend, Dr. Thad Glazer. That's not going to help her patch things up with her firefighter ex-husband. With her oddball patients, meddling mother, and eccentric secretary thrown into the mix?not to mention a spree of suspicious fires?will Kate put her life back together or wind up in a padded cell?

She's had hit after hit with Janet Evanovich. Now this New York Times bestselling author begins a series that readers will go crazy for. Psychologist Kate Holly's own life has become the stuff of intensive therapy. She's divorcing her gorgeous firefighter husband, she has an eccentric secretary, her mother and aunt have erected a vaguely sexual sculpture in her front yard, and her psychiatrist ex-boyfriend won't stop calling to find out what color panties she's wearing. Now, Kate's being bombarded with mysterious threats, and the only person who can help her is the one man who always makes her lose her mind-and heart.

Treat yourself to FULL TILT by Janet Evanovich and Charlotte Hughes. Praise for the FULL series: 'A fine romance with plenty of kisses' Mirror; 'A wild mix of intrigue, sex and pyrotechnics' The Times Her quiet life is about to get blown to smithereens... Jamie Swift just wants to keep her beloved Beaumont Gazette afloat, even if she occasionally has to sell the furniture to keep the town newspaper running. Having her financial partner come to check on her is the last thing she needs - particularly when that partner turns out to be multi-millionaire Max Holt, handsome, charming, and pathologically flirtatious. But someone wants Max in town even less than Jamie does - and they've got the guns and dynamite to prove it...

Grand palaces of culture, opera theaters marked the center of European cities like the cathedrals of the Middle Ages. As opera cast its spell, almost every European city and society aspired to have its own opera house, and dozens of new theaters were constructed in the course of the "long" nineteenth century. At the time of the French Revolution in 1789, only a few, mostly royal, opera theaters, existed in Europe. However, by the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries nearly every large town possessed a theater in which operas were performed, especially in Central Europe, the region upon which this book concentrates.
This volume, a revised and extended version of two well-reviewed books published in German and Czech, explores the social and political background to this "opera mania" in nineteenth century Central Europe. After tracing the major trends in the opera history of the period, including the emergence of national genres of opera and its various social functions and cultural meanings, the author contrasts the histories of the major houses in Dresden (a court theater), Lemberg (a theater built and sponsored by aristocrats), and Prague (a civic institution). Beyond the operatic institutions and their key stage productions, composers such as Carl Maria von Weber, Richard Wagner, Bedrich Smetana, Stanislaw Moniuszko, Antonin Dvorak, and Richard Strauss are put in their social and political contexts. The concluding chapter, bringing together the different leitmotifs of social and cultural history explored in the rest of the book, explains the specificities of opera life in Central Europe within a wider European and global framework.