A History of Eastern Europe 1740-1918: Empires, Nations and Modernisation provides a comprehensive, authoritative account of the region during a troubled period that finished with the First World War. Ian Armour focuses on the three major themes that have defined Eastern Europe in the modern period - empire, nationhood and modernisation - whilst chronologically tracing the emergence of Eastern Europe as a distinct concept and place. Detailed coverage is given to the Habsburg, Ottoman, German and Russian Empires that struggled for dominance during this time. In this exciting new edition, Ian Armour incorporates findings from new research into the nature and origins of nationalism and the attempts of supranational states to generate dynastic loyalties as well as concepts of empire. Armour's insightful guide to early Eastern Europe considers the important figures and governments, analyses the significant events and discusses the socio-economic and cultural developments that are crucial to a rounded understanding of the region in that era. Features of this new edition include: * A fully updated and enlarged bibliography and notes * Eight useful maps * Updated content throughout the text A History of Eastern Europe 1740-1918 is the ideal textbook for students studying Eastern European history.

This welcome second edition of A History of Eastern Europe provides a thematic historical survey of the formative processes of political, social and economic change which have played paramount roles in shaping the evolution and development of the region. Subjects covered include: Eastern Europe in ancient, medieval and early modern times the legacies of Byzantium, the Ottoman Empire and the Habsburg Empire the impact of the region's powerful Russian and Germanic neighbours rival concepts of 'Central' and 'Eastern' Europe the experience and consequences of the two World Wars varieties of fascism in Eastern Europe the impact of Communism from the 1940s to the 1980s post-Communist democratization and marketization the eastward enlargement of the EU. A History of Eastern Europe now includes two new chronologies – one for the Balkans and one for East-Central Europe – and a glossary of key terms and concepts, providing comprehensive coverage of a complex past, from antiquity to the present day.

"And however paradoxical it may seem today, the 'Grail mood' is in the fullest sense to be found in Russia. And the future role that Russia will play in the sixth post-Atlantean epoch, a task of which I have so often had to speak, rests firmly upon this unconquerable 'Grail mood' in the Russian people." --Rudolf Steiner (Nov. 3, 1918) Although Eastern Europe has been part of Christian humanity for more than a thousand years, its task and spiritual identity remain a mystery, the answer to which cannot be found unless we look behind outer historical events to the spiritual, meta-historical dimensions of history. This momentous work, breathtaking in its scope and detail, represents just such a penetrating, esoteric study of Eastern Europe in the light of Rudolf Steiner's spiritual research. Prokofieff shows how, from the earliest times, the future "conscience of humanity" flowed from hidden mystery centers in Hibernia to the eastern Slavic peoples. As a result, qualities of "compassion, patience, and willingness for sacrifice" developed in their souls, creating a truly Christian "Grail mood." Despite incalculable suffering--from the persecutions by the Mogul hordes of the thirteenth century to the Bolshevik experiment of the twentieth century--this quality has become an unconquerable force in the depths of their being. In illuminating the maya of outer history, Prokofieff reveals the forces that have been at work to hinder the progress and future intentions of humankind. Those adversarial forces have created a "karma of materialism" that the eastern Slavic peoples have taken upon themselves out of their exalted willingness for sacrifice. Will we be able to use the present opportunity granted by this sacrifice to fulfill the primary purposes of the present cultural epoch? Serious study of this book--intended for students of spiritual science--can lead to a profound awakening to the challenges that face humankind today.

A History of Eastern Europe: Crisis and Changeis a wide-ranging single volume history of the "lands between", the lands which have lain between Germany, Italy, and the Tsarist and Soviet empires. Bideleux and Jeffries examine the problems that have bedevilled this troubled region during its imperial past, the interwar period, under fascism, under communism, and since 1989. While mainly focusing on the modern era and on the effects of ethnic nationalism, fascism and communism, the book also offers original, striking and revisionist coverage of: * ancient and medieval times * the Hussite Revolution, the Renaissance, the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation * the legacies of Byzantium, the Ottoman Empire and the Hapsburg Empire * the rise and decline of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth * the impact of the region's powerful Russian and Germanic neighbours * rival concepts of "Central" and "Eastern" Europe * the 1920s land reforms and the 1930s Depression. Providing a thematic historical survey and analysis of the formative processes of change which have played the paramount roles in shaping the development of the region, A History of Eastern Europeitself will play a paramount role in the studies of European historians.

Philosophy, Society and the Cunning of History in Eastern Europe charts the intellectual landscape of twentieth century East-Central Europe under the unifying theme of 'precariousness' as a mode of historical existence. Caught between empires, often marked by catastrophic historic events and grand political failures, the countries of East-Central Europe have for a long time developed a certain intellectual self-representation, a culture that not only helps them make some sense of such misfortunes, but also protects them somehow from a collapse into nihilism. An interdisciplinary study of this sophisticated culture of survival and endurance has been long overdue. Not only is it charming and worth studying in its own right, but with the re-integration of the 'new Europe' into the 'old' one and the emergence on the 'Western' European intellectual scene of many authors from the 'East,' such a culture will also shape the European mind of the 21st century. This volume decodes and explores this culture of 'precariousness' from the complementary angles of philosophy, political theory, intellectual history and literary studies. Expert contributors look at a wide range of topics, from philosophical martyrdom to collective suffering to geographical fatalism, and explore the works of key authors in the field including Cioran, Kołakowski, Kertész, Bauman and Žižek. This book was originally published as a special issue of Angelaki: The Journal of the Theoretical Humanities.

This illustrated historical reference work provides an interpretive overview of each of the countries of Eastern Europe, focusing particularly on political developments and including references to significant social, cultural and economic events.

David Crowe draws from previously untapped East European, Russian, and traditional sources to explore the life, history, and culture of the Gypsies, or Roma, from their entrance into the region in the Middle Ages until the present.

Challenges of Modernity offers a broad account of the social and economic history of Central and Eastern Europe in the twentieth century and asks critical questions about the structure and experience of modernity in different contexts and periods. This volume focuses on central questions such as: How did the various aspects of modernity manifest themselves in the region, and what were their limits? How was the multifaceted transition from a mainly agrarian to an industrial and post-industrial society experienced and perceived by historical subjects? Did Central and Eastern Europe in fact approximate its dream of modernity in the twentieth century despite all the reversals, detours and third-way visions? Structured chronologically and taking a comparative approach, a range of international contributors combine a focus on the overarching problems of the region with a discussion of individual countries and societies, offering the reader a comprehensive, nuanced survey of the social and economic history of this complex region in the recent past. The first in a four-volume set on Central and Eastern Europe in the twentieth century, it is the go-to resource for those interested in the ‘challenges of modernity‘ faced by this dynamic region.

Imaging and Mapping Eastern Europe puts images centre stage and argues for the agency of the visual in the construction of Europe’s east as a socio-political and cultural entity. This book probes into the discontinuous processes of mapping the eastern European space and imaging the eastern European body. Beginning from the Renaissance maps of Sarmatia Europea, it moves onto the images of women in ethnic dress on the pages of travellers’ reports from the Balkans, to cartoons of children bullied by dictators in the satirical press, to Cold War cartography, and it ends with photos of protesting crowds on contemporary dust jackets. Studying the eastern European ‘iconosphere’ leads to the engagement with issues central for image studies and visual culture: word and image relationship, overlaps between the codes of othering and self-fashioning, as well as interaction between the diverse modes of production specific to cartography, travel illustrations, caricature, and book cover design. This book will be of interest to scholars in art history, visual culture, and central Asian, Russian and Eastern European studies.