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In this fully updated edition with a new foreword by Andre Liebich, David M. Crowe provides an overview of the life, history, and culture of the Gypsies, or Roma, from their entrance into the region in the Middle Ages up until the present, drawing from previously untapped East European, Russian, and traditional sources.
The Political Economy of Collectivized Agriculture/A Comparative Study of Communist and Non-Communist Systems assesses the political and economic impact of collectivization by surveying the experience of several nations with different forms of collective or state farming. Focusing primarily on the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) nations, this book addresses a number of questions, such as whether collectivized agriculture is more or less efficient than private agriculture; whether the manner in which collectivization is implemented affects its success; and whether there are social and political motivations that override economic considerations. This monograph is comprised of nin...
Wedding an analysis of relevant anthropological literature and philosophical theory, this important book re-positions violence--long trivialized by philosophers as an incidental or anomalous feature of humanity--as a central concern for ethical thought. Wendy Hamblet focuses on a fundamental paradox that emerges when well-meaning communities and individuals attempt to implement their ideals in our social, or socialized, world. Very often the unintended consequences of these individual or communal ideals run headlong into the brute fact of bloody human engagement. Through her investigation of violence-legitimization in myth and ancient tales, philosophical accounts (from Plato to Nietzsche), the concept of home as 'refuge, ' and recent social scientific data, Hamblet takes up the charge that violence is steeped in our being--it pervades human history and is embedded in the ethos of our modern institutions--and gives us essential tools for better understanding how violence actually operates.
In the post-communist era it has become evident that the emerging democracies in Eastern Europe will be determined by many factors, only some of them political. Throughout the region, the Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Greek Catholic churches have tried to impose their views on democracy through direct political engagement. Moreover, surveys show that the churches (and the army) enjoy more popular confidence than elected political bodies such as parliaments. These results reflect widespread disenchantment with a democratization process that has allowed politicians to advance their own agendas rather than work to solve the urgent socio-economic problems these countries face. In this penetratin...
The Romanian revolution was motivated by a desire for greater political and intellectual freedom and economic prosperity. It was the bloodiest of the eastern European transitions due to Ceausescu's cult of personality. However, many of the goals of the revolution are still unfulfilled. The lack of civil society, charges of political corruption, the failure to transform the economy, and concerns over the protection of ethnic minority rights are all factors in Romania's failure to become a fully integrated European country. Tracing the country's political history and examining Romania's postcommunist politics, economic transition and foreign policy, this book contemplates the prospects for this country as it enters the twenty first century.
A comprehensive analysis of the progress and problems of post-communist development attending to aspects of transition in the region as a whole and to specific issues in Albania, Bulgaria, the Czech and Slovak Republics, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Rumania, and Yugoslavia. Goldman (political science, Northeastern U.) diagrams the commonalities of development and the diversity of the various countries' rejection of communism, setting forth the difficulties in moving from communist monolithic authoritarianism to pluralistic democracy, coping with threats to progress and stability, and the international implications of these transitions. Paper edition (758-5), $32.95. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
This text provides a source of citations to North American scholarships relating specifically to the area of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. It indexes fields of scholarship such as the humanities, arts, technology and life sciences and all kinds of scholarship such as PhDs.
The German Democratic Republic's emergence as the key political player within the Warsaw Pact has intensified debates concerning the critical East German military role in Soviet strategy for the future of Eastern Europe. Douglas Macgregor traces the origins of current collaboration to earlier forms of Russo-German military alliance.