The essays are devoted to the four "eights" in Czech history: 1918, when the Republic was founded; 1938, when its western parts were handed over to Hitler; 1948, when the Communists took power; and 1968, when an effort to create "socialism with a human face" was crushed by Soviet tanks.

Less than Nations: Central-Eastern European Minorities after WWI represents the result of research that the author has carried over recent years, and was facilitated by the 2008 PRIN project (Programmi di Ricerca di Rilevante Interesse Nazionale) and the 2010 Sapienza Research funds. The book analyses the conditions of national minorities after World War I, when the geo-political map of Central-Eastern Europe was redefined by international diplomacy. The new settlements were based on the principle of national self-determination and were conditioned by the geographic reality of Central-Eastern Europe, where states and nations rarely coincided. As a consequence, the minority question emerged as one of the most troublesome issues during the interwar period, and affected international relations and the internal conditions of many states. The minority question was discussed by historiography and by international observers, and became an integral part of the system which was centred around the League of Nations. This work begins with the study of the relationships between the states and their minorities, and of the international dimension of this question, which animated the fight between revisionist and anti-revisionist states. The documents of the Italian Army’s General Staff and of the League of Nations represent the main historical sources of this book, which carries out a complete study of the difficult situation of 1918–1920, when the new states annexed many “contested regions” within their frontiers, and of the numerous controversies concerning the application of international treaties and national regulations in relation to the protection of minorities.

The first comprehensive history of the Vatican’s agenda to defeat the forces of secular liberalism and communism through international law, cultural diplomacy, and a marriage of convenience with authoritarian and right-wing rulers. After the United States entered World War I and the Russian Revolution exploded, the Vatican felt threatened by forces eager to reorganize the European international order and cast the Church out of the public sphere. In response, the papacy partnered with fascist and right-wing states as part of a broader crusade that made use of international law and cultural diplomacy to protect European countries from both liberal and socialist taint. A Twentieth-Century Crusade reveals that papal officials opposed Woodrow Wilson’s international liberal agenda by pressing governments to sign concordats assuring state protection of the Church in exchange for support from the masses of Catholic citizens. These agreements were implemented in Mussolini’s Italy and Hitler’s Germany, as well as in countries like Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland. In tandem, the papacy forged a Catholic International—a political and diplomatic foil to the Communist International—which spread a militant anticommunist message through grassroots organizations and new media outlets. It also suppressed Catholic antifascist tendencies, even within the Holy See itself. Following World War II, the Church attempted to mute its role in strengthening fascist states, as it worked to advance its agenda in partnership with Christian Democratic parties and a generation of Cold War warriors. The papal mission came under fire after Vatican II, as Church-state ties weakened and antiliberalism and anticommunism lost their appeal. But—as Giuliana Chamedes shows in her groundbreaking exploration—by this point, the Vatican had already made a lasting mark on Eastern and Western European law, culture, and society.

Thomas G. Masaryk was founding and first president of the State of Czechoslovakia. He was also a dissident charter member of the theoretical vanguard that established modern sociology in the nineteenth century. Many social scientists are aware of Masaryk's political role, but do not know about his significant contributions to sociology. With the publication of this book, Imber and Woolfolk hope to restore Masaryk to his rightful place in history as a founding sociological theorist. This compilation of some of Masaryk's major writings reveals the intertwining of politics and social theory that is characteristic of his thinking. Chapters in Constructive Sociological Theory include The Development of the Modern Suicide Tendency"; "Essence and Method of Sociology"; The Epistemological Problem of Russian Philosophy"; "The Religious Question and Modern Philosophy"; The Class Structure of Society"; "Central Problems of Marxist Policy"; and "Democracy versus Theocracy." Constructive Sociological Theory also presents these writings together in English for the first time. Alan Woolfolk's substantial introduction extensively discusses Masaryk's biographical background, academic life, political career, religious views, and interpretations of Marx and Comte, among other subjects. This landmark volume will be an essential addition to the libraries of political theorists, sociologists, philosophers, and theologians.

This outstanding book analyses the Soviet model as a distinctive pattern of modernity - examining its historical background and institutional structure, and challenging many of the assumptions and judgements made about the Soviet road.

The collaborative effort of scholars from Russia and the United States, this book reevaluates the history of postwar Eastern Europe from 1944 to 1949, incorporating information gleaned from newly opened archives in Eastern Europe. For nearly five decades, the countries of Yugoslavia, Poland, Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and the Soviet zone of Germany were forced to live behind the ?iron curtain.? Though their experiences under communism differed in sometimes fundamental ways and lasted no longer than a single generation, these nations were characterized by systematic assaults on individual rights and social institutions that profoundly shaped the character of Eastern Europe today. The emergence of the former People's Democracies from behind the iron curtain has been a wrenching process, but, as this book demonstrates, the beginning of the communist era was equally as traumatic as its end.With the opening of the archives in Russia and Eastern Europe, the contributors have been able to get a much firmer grasp on Soviet policies in the region and on East European responses and initiatives, which in turn has yielded more satisfying answers to vexing questions about Soviet intentions in the region and the origins of the Cold War. Exploring these events from a new, better-informed perspective, the contributors have made a valuable contribution to the historiography of postwar Europe.