Overview

In the 1780s, the Habsburg monarch Joseph II decreed that henceforth German would be the language of his realm. His intention was to forge a unified state from his vast and disparate possessions, but his action had the opposite effect, catalyzing the emergence of competing nationalisms among his Hungarian, Czech, and other subjects, who feared that their languages and cultures would be lost. In this sweeping narrative history of Eastern Europe since the late eighteenth century, John Connelly connects the stories of the region's diverse peoples, telling how, at a profound level, they have a shared understanding of the past. An ancient history of invasion and migration made the region into a cultural landscape of extraordinary variety, a patchwork in which Slovaks, Bosnians, and countless others live shoulder to shoulder and where calls for national autonomy often have had bloody effects among the interwoven ethnicities. Connelly traces the rise of nationalism in Polish, Austro-Hungarian, and Ottoman lands; the creation of new states after the First World War and their later absorption by the Nazi Reich and the Soviet Bloc; the reemergence of democracy and separatist movements after the collapse of communism; and the recent surge of populist politics throughout the region.Because of this common experience of upheaval, East Europeans are people with an acute feeling for the precariousness of history: they know that nations are not eternal, but come and go; sometimes they disappear. From Peoples into Nations tells their story. 'If you want to understand why illiberal democracy is not the newest of ideas, or how a raft of leaders has emerged in Hungary, Poland and the Balkans who seem to echo a dark time in our continent's history, this compelling book, covering the last 200 years in the region, is a good place to start. . . . Few recent works have made the past so relevant to our times.' Victor Sebestyen, Sunday Times 'Connelly captures superbly the divergences and rivalries within his basket of nationalities: how little coordination took place between them; how little they recognised what he calls their 'common predicament.' R.J.W. Evans, Literary Review

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Reviews

If you want to understand why illiberal democracy is not the newest of ideas, or how a raft of leaders has emerged in Hungary, Poland and the Balkans who seem to echo a dark time in our continent's history, this compelling book, covering the last 200 years in the region, is a good place to start. . . . Few recent works have made the past so relevant to our times. ---Victor Sebestyen, Sunday Times Connelly captures superbly the divergences and rivalries within his basket of nationalities: how little coordination took place between them; how little they recognised what he calls their 'common predicament.' ---R.J.W. Evans, Literary Review A rich narrative history of Central and Eastern Europe. ---Damir Marusic, Washington Examiner [From Peoples into Nations] will doubtless emerge as a landmark contribution to the study of nationalism as a political force in Eastern Europe. * Survival: Global Politics and Strategy * The author has provided his reader not only with a detailed 'crash course' on how the people of Eastern Europe formed nations there, but also with a 'road map' for further intellectual immersion. John Connelly's monograph, therefore, serves as a valuable contribution to the broader understanding of Eastern Europe and an introductory textbook on a geographic space where more good and bad happened during the twentieth century than anywhere else. ---Pawel Markiewicz, Slavonic and East European Review

"""If you want to understand why illiberal democracy is not the newest of ideas, or how a raft of leaders has emerged in Hungary, Poland and the Balkans who seem to echo a dark time in our continent’s history, this compelling book, covering the last 200 years in the region, is a good place to start. . . . Few recent works have made the past so relevant to our times.""---Victor Sebestyen, Sunday Times ""Connelly captures superbly the divergences and rivalries within his basket of nationalities: how little coordination took place between them; how little they recognised what he calls their ‘common predicament.’""---R.J.W. Evans, Literary Review ""A rich narrative history of Central and Eastern Europe.""---Damir Marusic, Washington Examiner ""[From Peoples into Nations] will doubtless emerge as a landmark contribution to the study of nationalism as a political force in Eastern Europe."" * Survival: Global Politics and Strategy * ""The author has provided his reader not only with a detailed ‘crash course’ on how the people of Eastern Europe formed nations there, but also with a ‘road map’ for further intellectual immersion. John Connelly’s monograph, therefore, serves as a valuable contribution to the broader understanding of Eastern Europe and an introductory textbook on a geographic space where more good and bad happened during the twentieth century than anywhere else. ""---Paweł Markiewicz, Slavonic and East European Review ""A magisterial account about Eastern Europe that forcefully reminds us of the enduring and adaptable power of national passions in modern history. . . .Connelly is undeniably one of the best experts in regional history of central and eastern Europe, but most of all, he is a comparative historian of nation-states. . . .[B]efore any vast global comparisons can be made, we need rich, rigorous, and authoritative regional histories. From Peoples into Nations delivers just that.""---Małgorzata Mazurek, H-Diplo"

Author Information

John Connelly is the Sidney Hellman Ehrman Professor of History and director of the Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of Captive University: The Sovietization of East German, Czech, and Polish Higher Education and From Enemy to Brother: The Revolution in Catholic Teaching on the Jews. He lives in Kensington, California.

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