Ideologies and National Identities: The Case of Twentieth-Century Southeastern Europe

Twentieth-century Southeastern Europe endured three, separate decades of international and civil war, and was marred in forced migration and wrenching systematic changes. This book is the result of a year-long project by the Open Society Institute to examine and reappraise this tumultuous century. A cohort of young scholars with backgrounds in history, anthropology, political science, and comparative literature were brought together for this undertaking. Guided by renowned editors, they drew on transnational approaches that extended beyond their own country's histories, in a fashion that Budapest's Central European University has done so much to encourage. The studies invite attention to fascism, socialism, and liberalism as well as nationalism and Communism. While most chapters deal with war and confrontation, they focus rather on the remembrance of such conflicts in shaping todayis ideology and national identity. Experts on these issues, and in particular young researchers, must compare and contrast the original sources of conviction in order to fully grasp the topics that are too often uncontested both inside and outside the region.