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 | | Dictionary of East European History Since 1945 by Joseph Held ISBN-10: 9780313265198 ISBN-10: 0-313-26519-4 ISBN-13: 9780313265198 ISBN-13: 978-0-313-26519-8 Hardcover Greenwood Find Lowest Price |
Editorials | ||
Product Description Eastern Europe has been in ongoing crisis since the breakup of the Soviet Union. This important book provides basic, up-to-date information on the events and background that have led up to the current crisis, and the volume includes helpful maps and photographs of key figures and scenes of everyday life. Librarians will value this reference tool as a reliable, informative source for students and others trying to understand today's conflicts. The volume covers all of the countries that formed the colonial empire of the Soviet Union--Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), Hungary, Poland, Romania, and former Yugoslavia. | ||
Reviews | ||
When you see the world with a skewed view In the entry on Nicola Ceausescu this work offers the following: "Because he was basically an arrogant, rude man, it did not take him long to treat everyone around him with disdain. After 1974, there was unprecedented terror in Romania. Ceausescu ruled by relying on the Securitate, as the secret police was called, and he succeeded in intimidating almost everyone in society. He eventually resembled an oriental despot, and nepotism, the hallmark of oriental despotism, became a means through which he conducted his everyday business." The problems with such a claim are several. Although Mr. Held would be hard-pressed to dig up people who actively loved Ceausescu, he still needs to offer some, any, support for the statement. As for the second sentence, ok but where's the proof? Nobody doubts that he as a brutal dictator but the hallmarks of scholarly works are proof and objectivity. This offers neither. As to the last sentence, one finds it difficult to believe that this was published in the 1990's and not the 1890's. The term oriental despot is patently absurd and disgustingly racist. It ignores the variety of dictatorships that have abounded throughout the years in areas that could be called, "The Orient". Would one really group together the Ayatollah Khomeini, Saddam Hussein, Mao Tsetung and Genghis Khan together? A proper dissection of the term would involve a history of the evolution of the state in Asia. This volume is filled with such drivel. The author has a very strong anticommunist bend that keeps this work from anything resembling objectivity. That he defiles the term dictionary by applying it to this screed is nothing short of offensive. All authors are entitled to their opinions but those who really care to make a contribution to historical discussion make an attempt to not allow their own views to color their work. All that said, there are a huge number of entries in this work that provide a great name list for further research. However, any research that accepts as authoritative anything beyond the names in this work is doomed to mediocrity. | ||