Goodbye Eastern Europe An Intimate History Of A Divided Land

Description: In light of Russia's aggressive 2022 invasion of Ukraine Goodbye Eastern Europe is a crucial elucidative read a sweeping epic chronicling a thousand years of strife war and bloodshed from pre - Christianity to the fall of Communism illuminating the remarkable cultural significance and richness of a place perpetually lost to the margins of history. Eastern Europe the moniker has gone out of fashion since the fall of the Soviet Union. Ask someone now and they might tell you that Estonia is in the Baltics or Scandinavia that Slovakia is in Central Europe and Croatia is in the Eastern Adriatic or the Balkans. In fact Eastern Europe is a place that barely exists at all except in cultural memory. Yet it remains a powerful marker of identity for many with a fragmented and wide history defined by texts myths and memories of centuries of hardship and suffering. Goodbye Eastern Europe is a masterful narrative about a place that has survived the brink of being forgotten. Beginning with long - lost accounts of early pagan life Mikanowski offers a kaleidoscopic tour recounting the rise and fall of the great empires Ottoman Hapsburg and Russian the dawn of the modern era the ravages of Fascism and Communism as well as Capitalism the birth of the modern nation - state and more. A student of literature history and the ghosts of his own family's past Mikanowski paints a magisterial portrait of a place united by diversity and eclecticism and a people with the shared story of being the dominated rather than the dominating. The result is a loving and ebullient celebration of the distinctive and vibrant cultures that stubbornly persisted at the margins of Western Europe and a powerful corrective that re - centers our understanding of how the modern Western world took shape.
Title: Goodbye Eastern Europe An Intimate History Of A Divided Land
Barcode: 9781524748500
Publication Date: 7/11/2023
Category: Eastern Europe