Selected as "Editor's Choice" of the History Book Club
This historical survey of Central Europe covers a region that encompasses contemporary Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, and Croatia.
Now in its second edition, Central Europe: Enemies, Neighbors, Friends contains a new epilogue-updated to cover events since 1995-and several redesigned or updated maps.
Each chapter is thematically organized around issues or events that are important in helping students develop an understanding of the region's internal dynamics.
Johnson illuminates the competing religious, cultural, economic, national, and ideological interests that have driven the history of Central Europe.
Thorough, objective, and focused, Johnson's work stands out as both a useful core text covering an area of growing interest and a brilliant account of a region that is only just beginning to receive the attention it deserves.
About the author
Lonnie R. Johnson has taught at a variety of institutions in Vienna, Austria, and has traveled extensively in Central Europe.
He is currently the Executive Director of the Fulbright Commission in Vienna.
praise for the previous edition
"He manages to make an enormous expanse of history accessible to the average reader in very few pages. There are not many books that set the historical context for this part of the world so well."
-Foreign Affairs
"Written by a sophisticated historical analyst, this book is nevertheless more accessible to non-specialists than any comparable work. Lonnie Johnson explains the region's paradoxes objectively, but also with deep sympathy.... Students, travelers, officials, and businessmen who wish to understand the contradictions of this vital, appealing, but often alarming heart of Europe must read this illuminating narrative." -Daniel
Chirot, University of Washington
"Johnson's superb survey, rich with historical insights and well-drawn descriptions of events and people, focuses on a region too little known and understood in the U.S. Fine maps, effective illustrations, and an admirably clear and engaging writing style enhance a work that is sure to become a standard."
"Central Europe has finally re-entered the cultural world of Western Europe and the
-P.W. Knoll, University of Southern California
United States.... Lonnie Johnson has come along with a book which is extremely use-ful not only for courses on Central Europe but will be indispensable to readers whose knowledge of European ideas is generally limited to the Western half of the continent."
-István Deák, Columbia University
COVER DEHON: JOHN COSTA, NEW ORLEANS
COVER ART: DETAIL FROM A TURKISH MINIATURE
DEPICTING THE BATTLE OF MOHAC IN HUNGARY IN 1526,
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OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
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9780195