Amazon.com description: Product Description: Slovenia has been a member of the European Union since 2004. For over 1000 years the small country with its population of not more than two million inhabitants was dependent on foreign powers. Still, the many different influences were not able to obliterate the language and the unique characteristics of the Slovenian people. These essays explore the Slovenians' capability to resist, the national poet France Preeren, the development of administrative structures in the Yugoslav period and Slovenian art and culture.