Eastern Europe 1939-2000

This book examines the post-war history of Eastern Europe from the perspective of social history. It explores 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 the region today. It also integrates research conducted in the archives opened since 1992 into a general history of the region. Rather than adopting a country-by-country approach, this text is thematic and comparative. It examines themes such as the social legacy of WWII, the Stalinist experience, the post-Stalinist regimes, the challenges to the dictatorships in 1956, 1968 and 1980-1, the revolution of 1989, and the post-socialist experience. Political events in the region are set in the context of woder social changes, arguing that 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.