Redrawing Nations: Ethnic Cleansing in East-Central Europe, 1944-1948 (The Harvard Cold War Studies Book Series) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0742510948 ISBN 13: 9780742510944

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2001

Synopsis

After World War II, some 12 million Germans, 3 million Poles and Ukrainians, and tens of thousands of Hungarians were expelled from their homes and forced to migrate to their supposed countries of origin. Using freshly available materials from Polish, Ukrainian, Russian, Czechoslovak, German, British, and American archives, the contributors to this book provide a sweeping, detailed account of the turmoil caused by the huge wave of forced migration during the nascent Cold War. The book also documents the deep and lasting political, social, and economic consequences of this traumatic time, raising difficult questions about the effect of forced migration on postwar reconstruction, the rise of Communism, and the growing tensions between Western Europe and the Eastern bloc. Those interested in European Cold-War history will find this book indispensable for understanding the profound―but hitherto little known―upheavals caused by the massive ethnic cleansing that took place from 1944 to 1948.

About this title

About the Author:

Philipp Ther is professor in the Department of History and Civilisation at the European University Institute. Ana Siljak is managing editor of the Journal of Cold War Studies.

Review:

Powerful. . . . These compelling essays . . . incorporate new archival researches and transnational historiographic reflection, and the authors consistently underscore the broader implications of the expulsion, resettlement, and awkward integration of millions of people for our understanding of nation building and global political strategies. (CHOICE)

Redrawing Nations offers a useful overview of a difficult part of the Cold War puzzle, thanks to two excellent introductions and several highly instructive essays. (Padraic Kenney Journal of Cold War Studies)

One of the first comprehensive English-language histories of the ethnic cleansing of Germans, Poles, and Ukranians in Eastern and Central Europe at the end of World War II. This collection of well-researched essays thoroughly covers the cruel, vindictive, and oftern violent transfer of populations, in which millions of people lost their homes, their posessions and their lives. Redrawing Nations is a significant book on an important subject. (Journal of Military History)

A terrific compendium. There is nothing like this important and extremely useful book available in English. The archival work is pioneering, and the insights gleaned from the archives help us all understand better the much-underrated significance of the issues related to the deportation of Germans, Ukrainians, and Poles from their homelands in post-World War II East-Central Europe. (Norman Naimark, Stanford University)

The book should be read not only by contemporary historians and students of nationalism, but also by students of literature concerned with the subterfuges of Social Realism, and by politicians who want to comprehend better the present political unease of east central Europe. Redrawing Nations will deservedly become a standard text. (Slavic Review)

...fine and highly welcome compendium. (Holocaust Studies: A Journal of Culture and History)

A valuable volume. (Journal Of European Area Studies)

Unique in moving beyond the purely diplomatic context to look at the profound social, economic, and political changes that forced migration brought not only to receiving but also to expelling states. Moreover, it's publication in English makes the most recent research by central European scholars on the subject available to a far wider audience. (Slavonic & East European Review)

A worthy first volume for the Harvard Cold War Studies Book Series. This book should encourage policy-makers to think twice, or three times, before recommending such a solution. (Journal of Slavic Military Studies)

A striking historical report of forced pupulation transfers in Europe after World War II. (Population and Development Review)

About this edition

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0742510948
• ISBN 13: 9780742510944
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 356
• Editor: Ther Philipp