What's So Eastern About Eastern Europe: Twenty Years After the Fall of the Berlin Wall First Edition
Author(s): Leon Marc (Author)
Publisher: Oldcastle Books
Publication Date: 9 Nov. 2009
Edition: First Edition
Language: English
Print length: 170 pages
ISBN-10: 9781842433409
ISBN-13: 1842433407
Book Description
Five years have passed since 10 countries from Central & Eastern Europe joined the European Union and 20 years since the Berlin Wall was torn down in 1989 – but ignorance about what is popularly still called Eastern Europe is as widespread as ever. Leon Marc gives the reader the big picture of Eastern Europe – its political, economic, social and cultural history, the nature of changes there and of the issues at stake in the political and economic transition – while putting the fall of the Berlin Wall and the EU enlargement into a broader perspective of general European history.
Editorial Reviews
Review
‘Comprehensively and concisely, Leon Marc’s book presents readers with vital insights into the different dimensions of our common European history and culture’ –Prof Dr Jaap W. de Zwaan, Director of the Nederlands Institute of International Relations
‘It is obvious that Eastern Europe has been influenced by its recent past. It is the great merit of Leon Marc’s book however that he delves behind the brief and inglorious communist half-century to uncover the deep traditions of a region which he demonstrates – with clarity, erudition and passion – to be not in any sense a qualified or lesser Europe but an essential and necessary part of our continent’s cultural unity and common destiny.’ – Enda O’Doherty, Dublin Review of Books –Enda O’Doherty, Dublin Review of Books
From the Back Cover
Five years have passed since ten countries from Central & Eastern Europe joined the European Union and twenty years since the Berlin Wall was torn down in 1989 – but misundersyanding of what is popularly still called Eastern Europe is as widespread as ever. Slovenia still gets mixed up with Slovakia, the Slavs remain a mystery in a Europe apparently dominated by Romanic and Germanic nations and a country like the Czech Republic is labelled as Eastern European, although one needs to travel west to get from Vienna to Prague. Leon Marc gives the reader the big picture of Eastern Europe – its political, economic, social and cultural history, the nature of changes there and of the issues at stake in the political and economic transition – while putting the fall of the Berlin Wall and the EU enlargement into a broader perspective of general European history. Three key strands of Eastern Europe – Central Europe, Eastern Europe proper and Southeast Europe – are identified and the Germanic, Byzantine and Ottoman influences on the region are examined. What’s So Eastern About Eastern Europe? is written in an accessible, non-academic way, addressing the stereotypes about the region and their roots and explaining why the notion of Eastern Europe is now obsolete and misleading. It gives an Eastern European’s perspective, and is informed by the author’s own personal experience of the changes that brought the Wall down.
About the Author
Leon Marc is a diplomat and writer, with a deep interest in history. Currently the Slovenian Ambassador to The Netherlands. He studied Public Policy and Management in the UK and was involved in the student movement in his native country at the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall. He witnessed his country joining the European Union in 2004 as a diplomat in Dublin and later dealt with the Western Balkans file.
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