PECOB Portal on Central Eastern
and Balkan Europe
by IECOB & AIS Università di Bologna

Sunday December 22, 2024

Books

This area collects information about a wide range of books, monographies and edited volumes concerning the countries and themes relevant to PECOB

East, rivista internazionale di geopolitica

European Regional Master's Degree in Democracy and Human Rights in South East Europe

Books about Central Eastern Europe and the Balkans

PECOB offers a significant number of books, mainly published by universities and scientific institutions.

The books here presented focus primarily on the economic, political and social transition in Central Eastern European countries and the Balkans since the 90s, and on those areas' influence on the widening Europe. Issues concerning gender relations, migrations, regional economic cooperation, religions, nationalism and national identities are broadly discussed. Many books also focus on the history of Eastern Europe, economics and regional cooperation in Central Eastern Europe and the Balkans. Literary works recently trasnlated from Eastern European languages are also included in this section. Some of the books are available for dowload.
Recently added books address issues such as Hungary in 1956, the demise of the Soviet Union, proceedings from a conference on cooperation in the Balkans, Yugoslavia and the 1968 events in Czechoslovakia.

Select the year:

Screening Soviet Nationalities: Kulturfilms from the Far North to Central Asia

(published in: Dec, 2016)

Filmmakers in the early decades of the Soviet Union sought to create a cinematic map of the new state by portraying its land and peoples on screen.
Across the Ussuri Kray

(published in: Nov, 2016)

In Russia’s Far East sits the wild Ussuri Kray, a region known for its remote highlands and rugged mountain passes where tigers and bears roam the cliffs, and salmon and lenok navigate the rivers.
Czech Feminisms. Perspectives on Gender in East Central Europe

(published in: Oct, 2016)

In this wide-ranging study of women’s and gender issues in the pre- and post-1989 Czech Republic, contributors engage with current feminist debates and theories of nation and identity to examine the historical and cultural transformations of Czech feminism.
The Russian Canvas

(published in: Sep, 2016)

The Russian Canvas charts the remarkable rise of Russian painting in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the nature of its relationship with other European schools.
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(published in: Sep, 2016)

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Bankrupts and Usurers of Imperial Russia

(published in: Sep, 2016)

As readers of classic Russian literature know, the nineteenth century was a time of pervasive financial anxiety. With incomes erratic and banks inadequate, Russians of all social castes were deeply enmeshed in networks of credit and debt. The necessity of borrowing and lending shaped perceptions of material and moral worth, as well as notions of social respectability and personal responsibility
The informal post-socialist economy: embedded practices and livelihoods

(published in: Aug, 2016)

From smugglers to entrepreneurs, blue-collar workers and taxi drivers, this book deals with the multitude of characters engaged in informal economic practices in the former socialist regions.
Terror and Pity: Aleksandr Sumarokov and the Theater of Power in Elizabethan Russia

(published in: Aug, 2016)

Situated on the intersection of comparative literary criticism, political history and theory, and cultural analysis, Terror and Pity: Aleksandr Sumarokov and the Theater of Power in Elizabethan Russia offers an in-depth reading of early Russian tragedy as a political genre.
The EU Enlargement and Gay Politics. The Impact of Eastern Enlargement on Rights, Activism and Prejudice

(published in: Jul, 2016)

This book offers a well-investigated and accessible picture of the current situation around the politics of LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) rights and activism in Central Europe and the Western Balkans in the context of the enlargement of the European Union (EU).
Religion and Language in Post-Soviet Russia

(published in: Jul, 2016)

Church Slavonic, one of the world's historic sacred languages, has experienced a revival in post-Soviet Russia. Blending religious studies and sociolinguistics, this is the first book devoted to Church Slavonic in the contemporary period.
Stafford Cripps' Mission to Moscow, 1940–42

(published in: Jul, 2016)

This book offers a lively revisionist account of a crucial phase in the life of Stafford Cripps: his meteoric rise from the radical fringe of Parliament on the eve of the war to membership of the War Cabinet in 1942.
The Balkans and the Byzantine World before and after the Captures of Constantinople, 1204 and 1453

(published in: Jun, 2016)

This book represents the first attempt to analyze historical and cultural developments in late medieval and early modern southeastern Europe as a set of mutually intertwined regional histories, burdened by the strong dichotomy between the almighty center—Constantinople—and the periphery that is rarely visible in both contemporary sources and modern scholarship.
TV Socialism

(published in: Jun, 2016)

In TV Socialism, Anikó Imre provides an innovative history of television in socialist Europe during and after the Cold War.
Nation-Building and Identity in the Post-Soviet Space

(published in: Jun, 2016)

Nation-building as a process is never complete and issues related to identity, nation, state and regime-building are recurrent in the post-Soviet region. This comparative, inter-disciplinary volume explores how nation-building tools emerged and evolved over the last twenty years
Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning

(published in: Jun, 2016)

Yet by the time the gas chambers became operation more than a million European Jews were already dead: shot at close range over pits and ravines.
The Rise and Fall of Belarusian Nationalism, 1906–1931

(published in: Jun, 2016)

Modern Belarusian nationalism emerged in the early twentieth century during a dramatic period that included a mass exodus, multiple occupations, seven years of warfare, and the partition of the Belarusian lands.
Eastern Europe and the Challenges of Modernity 1800-2000

(published in: Jun, 2016)

This book presents a concise and comprehensive overview of the mainstream flows of ideas, politics and itineraries towards modernity in Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans over two centuries from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the end of the Gorbachev administration.
Another Hungary

(published in: Jun, 2016)

Another Hungary tells the stories of eight remarkable individuals: an aristocrat, merchant, engineer, teacher, journalist, rabbi, tobacconist, and writer. All eight came from the same woebegone corner of prewar Hungary.
The Warsaw Pact Reconsidered

(published in: Apr, 2016)

This book examines to what extent the Warsaw Pact inadvertently provided its members with an opportunity to assert their own interests, emancipate themselves from the Soviet grip, and influence Soviet bloc policy.
The Palgrave Handbook of Slavic Languages, Identities and Borders

(published in: Apr, 2016)

This book analyzes the creation of languages across the Slavophone areas of the world and their deployment for political projects and identity building, mainly after 1989.
The New Russian Nationalism

(published in: Apr, 2016)

Russian nationalism, previously dominated by ‘imperial’ tendencies – pride in a large, strong and multi-ethnic state able to project its influence abroad – is increasingly focused on ethnic issues.
Warped Mourning

(published in: Apr, 2016)

This book's premise is that late Soviet and post-Soviet culture, haunted by its past, has produced a unique set of memorial practices.
The Territories of the Russian Federation 2016

(published in: Mar, 2016)

This excellent reference source brings together hard-to-find information on the constituent units of the Russian Federation.
Polish Patriotism after 1989: Concepts, Debates, Identities

(published in: Mar, 2016)

This book analyses the concept of patriotism and the contestation over its meaning in key public debates in Poland over the last twenty-five years.
The Heritage of Soviet Oriental Studies

(published in: Mar, 2016)

This book examines the Russian/Soviet intellectual tradition of Oriental and Islamic studies, which comprised a rich body of knowledge especially on Central Asia and the Caucasus.
Russia's Skinheads

(published in: Mar, 2016)

Russia’s Skinheads: Exploring and Rethinking Subcultural Lives provides a thorough examination of the phenomenon of skinheads, explaining its nature and its significance, and assessing how far Russian skinhead subculture is the ‘lumpen’ end of the extreme nationalist ideological spectrum.
Russian Writers and the Fin de Siècle

(published in: Mar, 2016)

Russian literature has a reputation for gloomy texts, especially during the late nineteenth century. This volume argues that a 'fin-de-siècle' mood informed Russian literature long before the chronological end of the nineteenth century, in ways that had significant impact on the development of Russian realism.
Anniversary Essays on Tolstoy

(published in: Mar, 2016)

A century after Leo Tolstoy's death, the author of War and Peace is widely admired but too often thought of only with reference to his realism and moral sense.
Kropotkin & The Anarchist Intellectual Tradition

(published in: Feb, 2016)

Kropotkin and the Anarchist Intellectual Tradition rescues Peter Kropotkin's philosophy of anarchism from the neglect that it has suffered in mainstream histories of the social and environmental sciences.
Stalin's Ghosts

(published in: Jan, 2016)

Stalin’s Ghosts examines the impact of the Gothic-fantastic on Russian literature in the period 1920-1940.
The Globalization of Nothing 2

(published in: Jan, 2016)

The Globalization of Nothing is back in a revised and completely updated Second Edition. In this reconceptualized volume, author George Ritzer focuses his attention squarely on the processes of globalization and how they relate to McDonaldization.
Architecture at the End of the Earth

(published in: Jan, 2016)

Brumfield is challenged by the immense difficulty of accessing the Russian North, and recounts traversing sketchy roads, crossing silt-clogged rivers on barges and ferries, improvising travel arrangements, being delayed by severe snowstorms, and seeing the region from the air aboard the small planes he needs to reach remote areas.
Nothing is True and Everything is Possible: Adventures in Modern Russia

(published in: Jan, 2016)

When British producer Peter Pomerantsev plunges into the booming Russian TV industry, he gains access to every nook and corrupt cranny of the country. He is brought to smoky rooms for meetings with propaganda gurus running the nerve-center of the Russian media machine, and visits Siberian mafia-towns and the salons of the international super-rich in London and the US
Gangs of Russia

(published in: Jan, 2016)

In her eye-opening new book, Svetlana Stephenson transports us to Kazan, a city 500 miles from Moscow where gang culture is deeply entrenched. Drawing on a wealth of research and in-depth interviews with gang members, law enforcement and local residents (many carried out personally), she uncovers the evolving history, structure and practice of Russia’s street gangs from the early 1990s to the modern day.

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