Price of Freedom, The: A History of East Central Europe from the Middle Ages to the Present (Electronic book text)

In this comparative, regional history of East Central Europe, Piotr Wandycz explores the turbulent history of Poland, Bohemia/Czechoslovakia, and Hungary from their medieval origins to the post-Communist present. Contemporary events, the author argues, only become intelligible when viewed in their historical context. Exploring such issues as the tension between the industrial, urbanizing West, and agrarian East Central Europe, problems of interrupted statehood, the impact of industrialization, the rise of modern nationalism, democracy and authoritarianism and Communism, the author concludes that the price of freedom in the region has been high, and never more so than today.