History of Modern Political Thought in East Central Europe : Volume II
Journal Data
| Type | SOURCE_BOOK |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (GB) |
| ISBN-13 | 9780198737155 |
| Open Library | OL25055834W |
| Total publications | 5 |
| Coverage period | 2018 - 2018 |
| Language | EN |
| Impact factor | 0.4 |
A History of Modern Political Thought in East Central Europe is a two-volume synthetic overview, authored by an international team of researchers. Covering twenty national cultures and 250 years, it goes beyond the conventional nation-centered narratives and presents a novel vision especially sensitive to the cross-cultural entanglement of discourses. Its principal aim is to look at these cultures within the global “market of ideas” and also help rethink some of the basic assumptions about the history of modern political thought and modernity as such. The second volume starts with the repercussions of the collapse of multinational empires in the region (Habsburg, Hohenzollern, Ottoman, and Romanov) after the First World War, followed by multiple cycles of democratization and authoritarian backlash. Analyzing the intellectual paradigms and debates of the Stalinist and post-Stalinist decades it shows that although the imposed Sovietization had similar blueprints, it also entailed a negotiation with local intellectual traditions. At the same time, the book identifies paradigms, such as revisionist Marxism, which were eminently transnational and crossed the Iron Curtain. The phenomenon of dissidence is also analyzed from this perspective, paying attention both to local traditions and global trends. Last but not least, rather than achieving the coveted “end of history,” the liberal democratic order created in East Central Europe after 1989 became increasingly contested from left and right alike. Thus, instead of a comfortable conclusion pointing to the European integration of most of these countries, the book closes with pertinent questions about the fragility of the democratic order in this part of the world and beyond
A New State for “New Men”
Growing disappointment with party politics in the 1920s gave rise to discourses extolling the state as the principal actor of societal change. A common denominator of the various versions of etatism and technocratism in the region was a strong “anti-political” ideological reflex. In the 1930s, this was coupled with a discourse of a preventive strike, defending dictatorial policies as measures to hinder radical left- and right-wing movements from …
The Postwar “Transition Years”
Debates on the postwar “transition” are symbolically linked to the year 1945, but in many cases they had already started in 1943–4 and lasted until 1948. A general feeling of rupture with the past dominated throughout East Central Europe. Symbolic geographical references underwent important change, stressing some sort of synthesis between East and West. The experience of the Holocaust resulted in reflections on the responsibility of the region’s …
Stalinism and De-Stalinization
By 1948, a full-fledged Stalinist dictatorship was introduced all over the region. Socialist realism became an official aesthetic ideology; in historiography, in most cases it was the national Romantic vision that was extolled as “progressive,” but there were also attempts to claim the progressive character of a strong central state power. Independent reflection on Stalinism was only possible either in exile or in the private sphere. After Stalin…
Toward Socialism with a Human Face?
Marxist revisionism, providing a powerful political language of intra-systemic opposition, was characterized by an effort to restore the relative autonomy of the personality in the face of both society and history, to provide new ethics, a new way of life, and envision “socialism with a human face.” The 1960s witnessed an unprecedented boom of Marxist and non-Marxist intellectual and cultural production, ranging from the rediscovery of the inconv…
A History of Modern Political Thought in East Central Europe
A History of Modern Political Thought in East Central Europe is a two-volume synthetic overview, authored by an international team of researchers. Covering twenty national cultures and 250 years, it goes beyond the conventional nation-centered narratives and presents a novel vision especially sensitive to the cross-cultural entanglement of discourses. Its principal aim is to look at these cultures within the global “market of ideas” and also help…
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A New State for “New Men”
Growing disappointment with party politics in the 1920s gave rise to discourses extolling the state as the principal actor of societal change. A common denominator of the various versions of etatism and technocratism in the region was a strong “anti-political” ideological reflex. In the 1930s, this was coupled with a discourse of a preventive strike, defending dictatorial policies as measures to hinder radical left- and right-wing movements from …
The Postwar “Transition Years”
Debates on the postwar “transition” are symbolically linked to the year 1945, but in many cases they had already started in 1943–4 and lasted until 1948. A general feeling of rupture with the past dominated throughout East Central Europe. Symbolic geographical references underwent important change, stressing some sort of synthesis between East and West. The experience of the Holocaust resulted in reflections on the responsibility of the region’s …
Stalinism and De-Stalinization
By 1948, a full-fledged Stalinist dictatorship was introduced all over the region. Socialist realism became an official aesthetic ideology; in historiography, in most cases it was the national Romantic vision that was extolled as “progressive,” but there were also attempts to claim the progressive character of a strong central state power. Independent reflection on Stalinism was only possible either in exile or in the private sphere. After Stalin…
Toward Socialism with a Human Face?
Marxist revisionism, providing a powerful political language of intra-systemic opposition, was characterized by an effort to restore the relative autonomy of the personality in the face of both society and history, to provide new ethics, a new way of life, and envision “socialism with a human face.” The 1960s witnessed an unprecedented boom of Marxist and non-Marxist intellectual and cultural production, ranging from the rediscovery of the inconv…
A History of Modern Political Thought in East Central Europe
A History of Modern Political Thought in East Central Europe is a two-volume synthetic overview, authored by an international team of researchers. Covering twenty national cultures and 250 years, it goes beyond the conventional nation-centered narratives and presents a novel vision especially sensitive to the cross-cultural entanglement of discourses. Its principal aim is to look at these cultures within the global “market of ideas” and also help…