The comprehensive history of Eastern Europe. This highly readable, informed & objective work covers the political, cultural & economic history of the area -- the perfect reference for the history aficionado or for college courses. In-depth study of each of the East European nations, from their inception to the present: Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Eastern Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia. Origins of diverse Cultures & Languages; Invasions of the 2nd to 9th Centuries; Formation of Nation States; Humanism & Renaissance in the 14-15th Centuries; Domination by the Ottoman Turks, the Hapsburgs, & the Russians; Rise of Nationalism; Revolutions of 1848; The Austro-Hungarian Empire; Two World Wars; Treaties & Alliances; Stalinism; Life under Communism & the U. S. S. R.; The Hungarian Revolution of 1956, the Prague Spring & Solidarity in Poland; Gorbachev & the Reform era; The dissolution of the Iron Curtain; Also, Ethnic tensions & conflicts over national minorities; Economic problems & foreign debt; Religious persecution, anti-Semitism, Communist Party purges; Political prisoners & Human rights issues; Resistance movements; & much more. Special update insert, covering the astonishing events of late-1989 to mid-1990 in Eastern Europe.