This book is the first complete study in English of Antonescu's part in the Second World War. Antonescu was a major ally of Hitler and Romania fielded the third largest Axis army, joined the Tripartite Pact in November 1940 as a sovereign state and participated in the attack on the Soviet Union of 22 June 1941 as an equal partner of Germany.

A selection of papers from a conference held in honour of Professor Hugh Seton-Watson on the occasion of his retirement in l983. The aim of the contributors is to illustrate the role of the historian in the political life of Central and East European nations.

This is a single-volume history of Romania under Gheorghiu-Dej, the Communist ruler and predecessor of Nicolae Ceausescu. It investigates the Communist's use of terror in their attempt to totally transform Romanian society, including appalling abuses and mass arrests.

Deletant (Romanian studies, U. of London) provides an extensive history and examination of the Securitate, Ceausescu's secret police. The first two chapters address the methods used to impose Communist rule in Romania and revolutionize Romanian society. Subsequent chapters deal with Transylvania and Ceaucescu's appeals to national sentiment, the role of Bessarabia in cultivating support, compliance and dissent, central planning, repression in the years 1978 to 1989, and the present state of affairs. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Fascism exerted a crucial ideological and political influence across Europe and beyond. Its appeal reached much further than the expanding transnational circle of 'fascists', crossing into the territory of the mainstream, authoritarian, and traditional right. Meanwhile, fascism's seemingly inexorable rise unfolded against the backdrop of a dramatic shift towards dictatorship in large parts of Europe during the 1920s and especially 1930s. These dictatorships shared a growing conviction that 'fascism' was the driving force of a new, post-liberal, fiercely nationalist and anti-communist order. The ten contributions to this volume seek to capture, theoretically and empirically, the complex transnational dynamic between interwar dictatorships. This dynamic, involving diffusion of ideas and practices, cross-fertilisation, and reflexive adaptation, muddied the boundaries between 'fascist' and 'authoritarian' constituencies of the interwar European right.

Lavinia Stan and Lucian Turcescu examine the relationship between religion and politics in ten former communist Eastern European countries. Contrary to widespread theories of increasing secularization, Stan and Turcescu argue that in most of these countries, the populations have shown themselves to remain religious even as they embrace modernization and democratization. Church-state relations in the new EU member states can be seen in political representation for church leaders, governmental subsidies, registration of religions by the state, and religious instruction in public schools. Stan and Turcescu outline three major models: the Czech church-state separation model, in which religion is private and the government secular; the pluralist model of Hungary, Bulgaria and Latvia, which views society as a group of complementary but autonomous spheres - for example, education, the family, and religion - each of which is worthy of recognition and support from the state; and the dominant religion model that exists in Poland, Romania, Estonia, and Lithuania, in which the government maintains informal ties to the religious majority. Church, State, and Democracy in Expanding Europe offers critical tools for understanding church-state relations in an increasingly modern and democratic Eastern Europe.

A fascinating study of expansionist visions of Hitler and Mussolini which enlightens our understanding of the dynamics and evolution of the fascist policies of Italy and Germany to the end of the Second World War.