{"product_id":"decades-of-crisis-central-and-eastern-europe-before-world-war-ii","title":"Decades of Crisis: Central and Eastern Europe before World War II","description":"\u003cp\u003eOnly by understanding Central and Eastern Europe's turbulent history during the first half of the twentieth century can we hope to make sense of the conflicts and crises that have followed World War II and, after that, the collapse of Soviet-controlled state socialism. Ivan Berend looks closely at the fateful decades preceding World War II and at twelve countries whose absence from the roster of major players was enough in itself, he says, to precipitate much of the turmoil.\n\nAs waves of modernization swept over Europe, the less developed countries on the periphery tried with little or no success to imitate Western capitalism and liberalism. Instead they remained, as Berend shows, rural, agrarian societies notable for the tenacious survival of feudal and aristocratic institutions. In that context of frustration and disappointment, rebellion was inevitable. Berend leads the reader skillfully through the maze of social, cultural, economic, and political changes in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Austria, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and the Soviet Union, showing how every path ended in dictatorship and despotism by the start of World War II.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"sb-details\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFormat:\u003c\/strong\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublished:\u003c\/strong\u003e 2001\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 485\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/strong\u003e University of California Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eISBN:\u003c\/strong\u003e 9780520229013\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"University of California Press","offers":[{"title":"Standard Secondhand — £2.02","offer_id":47911999471793,"sku":"SB-0520229010-C3","price":2.02,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0618\/2669\/5345\/files\/0520229010.jpg?v=1789205448","url":"https:\/\/sellbooks.co.uk\/products\/decades-of-crisis-central-and-eastern-europe-before-world-war-ii","provider":"Sell Books .co.uk","version":"1.0","type":"link"}