Amazon.com description: Product Description: Central Europe is a paradox. On the one hand it is the heart of Europe, a region still full of the literature, classical music and high culture of the 19th-century; and on the other it is a remnant of the Soviet Empire, economically devastated and socially crippled by decades of Communist Party rule.

Leading historians, specialists in art and literature, economists and political scientists from East and West present a stock-taking ten years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the bad old days. This multi-faceted picture of a complicated region at the turn of the century is explained by Russian and German commentators with a view from Moscow and Berlin. From contemporary security issues to the prospects for European Union expansion to the deep cultural and historical roots of the countries of the region, this volume of essays will improve your knowledge and understanding.