Illiberal Europe: Eastern Europe from the Fall of the Berlin Wall to the War in Ukraine

Ignorance about Eastern Europe is as widespread as ever, despite the EU's expansion and the fall of the Berlin Wall. This book offers a revised and updated perspective on the political and cultural history of Central, Eastern, and South-Eastern Europe, exploring the roots of populism and social conservatism and calling for a coalition of defenders of Humanism and Judeo-Christian tradition to save Europe and its liberal democracy.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 256 pages
Publication date: 21 February 2023
Publisher: Oldcastle Books Ltd

Eighteen years have passed since ten countries from Central and Eastern Europe joined the European Union, and more than three decades have passed since the Berlin Wall was torn down in 1989. However, ignorance about what is popularly still called Eastern Europe is as widespread as ever. Slovenia is still often confused with Slovakia, the Slavs remain a mystery in a Europe apparently dominated by Romanic and Germanic nations, and a country like the Czech Republic is labeled as Eastern European, even though one needs to travel west to get from Vienna to Prague.

First published in 2009 under the title "What's so Eastern about Eastern Europe?", this book is much more than a revised and updated version of the first edition. Its presentation of the political and cultural history of Central, Eastern, and South-Eastern Europe, written in an accessible language, is now complemented with recent developments in the region. The new edition delves into the reasons behind the illiberal turn in Poland, Hungary, and elsewhere, putting the alleged democratic backslide into the wider context of European populism. Leon Marc offers a new and fresh perspective in explaining the roots of populism and social conservatism in the region, which the book sees as a mixture of historical factors, economic conditions, the heavy burden of Communist legacy, as well as a reaction to contemporary social developments in the West. Drawing on a wide range of literature, the book calls for more sensibility to these underlying causes, a critical examination of the true European values, and for a coalition of defenders of Humanism and Judeo-Christian tradition as key pillars of its identity, in order to save Europe and its liberal democracy.

This updated and expanded edition contains a brand new chapter bringing this book up to date with the latest developments in the region.

Weight: 184g
Dimension: 128 x 198 x 19 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780857305510