Suchergebnisse

Berend's memoir offers an interesting case study, a subjective addition to the "objective" historical works on Central and Eastern European state socialism. It describes the hard choices of intellectuals in a dictatorial state: 1. remain in isolation, concentrate on scholarly works, and exclude politics in your personal life; 2. be in opposition, criticize and unveil the regime, accept discrimination and exclusion; 3. remain within the establishment and work for reforming the country using legal possibilities to criticize the regime and to achieve changes from within.The book raises basic historical questions and debates, compares East European and American higher education systems, and presents an eyewitness' insights on life in the United States

Intro -- Epigraph -- Half Title -- Series Information -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- Illustrations -- Introduction: Europe, its civilizations and historical regions -- Europe and its civilization -- The idea and reality of European integration -- In spite of integration, major macro-regional differences -- Is the Central and Eastern European backwardness the legacy of communism? -- The "longue durée" approach -- Evaluating and measuring peripheral backwardness -- The terms of backwardness, its measurement and generalization -- Regional differences and the future of Europe -- Notes -- 1 Long historical roads toward regional differences within Europe: Four regions in 1913 -- Explanatory theories and the reality -- The road toward a high level of advancement: Northwest Europe -- The revolutionary transformation of the Western mind from the Renaissance via Reformation to Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment -- Northwest Europe at the top -- Dead-end roads and relative backwardness in the peripheries -- Stimulating influence by the connection with the advanced core -- Three distinct peripheral macro-regions before World War I -- Notes -- 2 A radically changed world, yet unchanged regional division: Four regions in early-21st-century Europe -- The 21st century: a dramatically changed world and Europe -- The regionalization of the enlarged European Union -- The other side of core-periphery relations: the road to catch up -- Four regions in the early 21st century -- The changing position of some countries in an unchanged regional divide -- Europe's divided regions' position in the world -- Notes -- 3 What preserves regional differences?: The social, economic, and cultural factors -- The dialectic of change and continuity -- Survival of micro-regional peripheral backwardness in advanced countries.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Contents -- List of illustrations -- A personal introductory note -- 1 The new postwar economic and political world order: the ground paved for European integration -- War devastation -- The collapse of colonial empires -- A return to normalcy ? -- Rebuilding the postwar capitalist economic regime: welfare capitalism -- Building the free trade system and international institutions -- American assistance to Europe -- Rearranging the postwar world: the rising Cold War regime -- The bomb and the nuclear arms race -- Cold war crises of 1948-1950: close to a World War III -- Forming the new Cold War political world order -- A new solution to the "German Question" -- The plan for a joint Western European army -- 2 Federalist dreamers and pragmatic integrationists: the conceptualization and first steps towards a United States of Europe -- The idea of a United States of Europe -- American plans and efforts to Unite Europe -- New American integration plans: looking for a European leader -- The failure to convince Britain -- Successfully blackmailing France -- American successes, pragmatic European politicians: the coal and steel community -- Deciding how to go further -- The impact of integration on economic recuperation -- The first crisis and curbing further integration -- 3 The main institutional structure and policy agendas of the European community -- The governing institutions of the community and their reforms -- The question of democratic deficit -- Common policy agendas -- Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) -- Aiding less-developed regions -- Social policy -- European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) -- 4 The new challenges of globalization and global political disorder - Europe's answer: regionalization (the 1980s-1990s).

Cover -- Half Title -- Series Page -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Introduction -- 1 Existential crisis, the possibility of disintegration, and the European Union in the 2010s -- The rise of an existential crisis: the economic factors -- Migration crisis and its connection with Europe's demographic crisis -- Terror attacks -- Populist attacks against the EU -- Recognition of the existential crisis -- The outside factor: loosening alliances and hostile neighbors -- Deep crisis is over, but are new ones coming? -- Escaping forward? -- 2 Inequalities within and among member countries undermined homogenization and became a source of discontents -- Capitalism and inequality -- Increasing inequality within the EU countries -- Inequality among member countries of the EU -- 3 The political representation of discontent: disappearing traditional political parties and rising populism -- From class to national parties -- Old mass parties are disappearing -- Melting down of the social democratic parties -- Rising populist parties -- Central political issues for populists -- 4 Brexit and its possible impact -- Joining late-leaving early -- "Hard" or "soft" landing? The Chequers plan -- The consequences of Brexit -- 5 Anti-European Union populism in Western and Southern Europe -- Liberal democracy and its multiethnic culture -- Why populism became triumphant in Britain -- Wilders, Le Pen, and others -- Populist defeats and victories, 2017-18 -- 6 Populism flooded Eastern Europe and the Balkans-undermining the EU -- A real home for populism -- The eastern part of Germany -- The region left behind -- The reverse migration crisis of the region -- The crisis of 2008 and austerity policy-authoritarian nationalism -- 7 Christian Europe? The use and abuse of Christian values and the populist debate -- Populism and Christianity.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- Introduction -- Part I Inside economic and political factors of the crisis -- 1 Britain: from outsider to inside-outsider and outsider again. Joining late, stepping out early -- 2 The crisis of the common currency, the euro -- 3 The tragicomedy of the Greek debt crisis -- 4 Dangerous demography: lack of reproduction -- 5 Suicidal enlargement of the European Union? -- 6 The state of transforming Eastern Europe -- Part II International factors and outside challenges -- 7 Malaise of modern capitalism: speculative crises, unemployment, and inequality -- 8 The Russian challenge: the EU's security and energy independence -- 9 The immigration crisis and its explosive consequences -- Conclusion: further integration or disintegration? -- Index

A major new history of economic regimes and economic performance in Europe throughout the twentieth century. Ivan T. Berend looks at the historic development of the twentieth-century European economy, examining both its failures and its successes in responding to the challenges of this crisis-ridden and troubled but highly successful age