Eastern Europe 1939-2000

This book examines the post-war history of Eastern Europe from a social perspective. It examines the nature and impact of socialist dictatorships on life in the region, and reveals the extent to which phenomena that emerged during the dictatorships are shaping society in the region today. It also integrates research conducted in the archives opened in the last eleven years into a general history of region. Rather than adopting a country-by-country approach this book is both thematic and explicitly comparative. It examines themes such as the social legacy of World War Two, the Stalinist experience, the post-Stalinist r gimes, the challenges to the dictatorships in 1956,1968 and 1980-1, the revolutions of 1989, and the post-socialist experience. Political events in the region are set in the context of wider social changes, arguing that the regimes not only re-shaped society but that society shaped and re-shaped the regimes. This allows proper consideration to be given to neglected themes such as class, gender, ethnicity, popular religion, resistance, consumerism, everyday life and nationalism.