First Published in 1990. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Product Description: Covers the period of takeover and of"high Stalinism" in Eastern Europe (!945-1955).

Eastern Europe has become an ideological battleground since the collapse of the Soviet Union, with liberals and authoritarians struggling to seize the ground lost by Marxism. In Fantasies of Salvation, Vladimir Tismaneanu traces the intellectual history of this struggle and warns that authoritarian nationalists pose a serious threat to democratic forces. A leading observer of the often baffling world of post-Communist Europe, Tismaneanu shows that extreme nationalistic and authoritarian thought has been influential in Eastern Europe for much of this century, while liberalism has only shallow historical roots. Despite democratic successes in places such as the Czech Republic and Poland, he argues, it would be a mistake for the West to assume that liberalism will always triumph. He backs this argument by showing how nationalist intellectuals have encouraged ethnic hatred in such countries as Russia, Romania, and the former Yugoslavia by reviving patriotic myths of heroes, scapegoats, and historical injustices. And he shows how enthusiastically these myths have been welcomed by people desperate for some form of "salvation" from political and economic uncertainty. On a theoretical level, Tismaneanu challenges the common ideas that the ideological struggle is between "right" and "left" or between "nationalists" and "internationalists." In a careful analysis of the conflict's ideological roots, he argues that it is more useful and historically accurate to view the struggle as between those who embrace the individualist traditions of the Enlightenment and those who reject them. Tismaneanu himself has been active in the intellectual battles he describes, particularly in his native Romania, and makes insightful use of interviews with key members of the dissident movements of the 1970s and 1980s. He offers original observations of countries from the Baltic to the Black Sea and expresses his ideas in a vivid and forceful style. Fantasies of Salvation is an indispensable book for both academic and nonacademic readers who wish to understand the forces shaping one of the world's most important and unpredictable regions.

A scholar poses such questions as what it really means to order a latte at Starbucks in Beijing as he journeys from nineteenth-century China into the future in this examination of China's place in the current world order, and from Shanghai, to Chicago, St. Louis, Budapest, and beyond.

Product Description: A leader of "the new Europe" offers a unique perspective on recent history.A stalwart ally and strategic partner in the war against terror and a new member of NATO, Romania with its vibrant democracy and robust economy is a far different place than it was in mid-twentieth century...read more

Chronicles the changes in Eastern Europe and assesses the prospects for the development of democracy in Romania, Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and other nations

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Product Description: First Published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an Informa company.