Books that cannot be accommodated in our book review section but that are worthy of special attention are listed here with their tables of contents.

Kopeček, Michal and Wciślik, Piotr, eds. Thinking through Transition: Liberal Democracy, Authoritarian Pasts, and Intellectual History in East Central Europe after 1989. Budapest: Central European University Press, 2015. xiii, 599 pp. Notes. Index. $75.00, hard bound.

Liberalism: Dissident Illusions and Disillusions. Ferenc Laczó, Five Faces of Post-Dissident Hungarian Liberalism: A Study in Agendas, Concepts, and Ambiguities. Piotr Wciślik, “Totalitarianism” and the Limits of Polish Dissident Political Thought: Late Socialism and After. Milan Znoj, Václav Havel, His Idea of Civil Society, and the Czech Liberal Tradition. Paul Blokker, The (Re-)Emergence of Constitutionalism in East-Central Europe. Conservatism: A Counter-Revolution? Petr Roubal, Anti-Communism of the Future: Czech Post-Dissident Neoconservatives in Post-Communist Transformation. Rafał Matyja, Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience: Polish Conservatism 1979–2011. Zoltán Gábor Szűcs, The Abortion of a “Conservative” Constitution-Making: A Discourse Analysis of the 1994–1998 Failed Hungarian Constitution-making Enterprise. Populism: Endemic Pasts and Global Effects. Camil Alexandru Pârvu, Syndrome or Symptom: Populism and Democratic Malaise in Post-Communist Romania. András Bozóki, The Illusion of Inclusion: Configurations of Populism in Hungary. Juraj Buzalka, The Political Lives of Dead Populists in Post-Socialist Slovakia. The Left: Between Communist Legacy and Neoliberal Challenge. Ágnes Gagyi, Non-Post-Communist Left in Hungary after 1989: Diverging Paths of Leftist Criticism, Civil Activism, and Radicalizing Constituency. Maciej Gdula, The Architecture of Revival: Left-wing Ideas and Politics in Poland after 2002. Stanislav Holubec, The Formation of the Czech Post-Communist Intellectual Left: Twenty Years of Seeking an Identity. Zsófia Lóránd, Feminist Criticism of the “New Democracies” in Serbia and Croatia in the First Half of the 1990s. Politics of History: Nations, Wars, Revolutions. James Mark, Muriel Blaive, Adam Hudek, Anna Saunders, and Stanisław Tyszka, 1989 After 1989: Remembering the End of Communism in East-Central Europe. Gábor Egry, A Fate for a Nation: Concepts of History and the Nation in Hungarian Politics, 1989–2010. Stevo Đurašković, From “Husakism” to “Mečiarism”: The National Identity-Building Discourse of the Slovak Left-wing Intellectuals in 1990s Slovakia. Zoltán Dujisin, Post-Communist Europe: On the Path to a Regional Regime of Remembrance?

Balkelis, Tomas and Davoliūtė, Violeta, eds. Population Displacement in Lithuania in the Twentieth Century: Experiences, Identities, and Legacies. On The Boundary of Two Worlds: Identity, Freedom, and Moral Imagination in the Baltics. Leiden: Brill, 2016. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Tables. €99.00, paper.

I. Population Displacement during World War One and Its Aftermath. Andrea Griffante, Making the Nation: Refugees, Indigent People, and Lithuanian Relief, 1914–1920. Tomas Balkelis, Forging a “Moral Community”: the Great War and Lithuanian Refugees in Russia. Klaus Richter, Displacement without Moving: Secession, Border Changes and Practices of Population Politics in Lithuania (1916–1923). II. Population Displacement in the Klaipėda Region. Vasilijus Safronovas, Population of the Klaipėda Region and the Balance of Power in the Eastern Baltic Region, 1919–1960. Ruth Leiserowitz, Population Shifts and Displacement in the Memel Region. III. Population Displacement during World War Two and Its Aftermath. Theodore R. Weeks, Repopulating Vilnius, 1939–1949. Vitalija Stravinskienė, Between Poland and Lithuania: Repatriation of Poles from Lithuania, 1944–1947. Violeta Davoliūtė, A “Forgotten” History of Soviet Deportation: The Case of Lithuanian Jews. Arūnas Streikus, Religious Life in a Displaced Society: the Case of Post-War Lithuania, 1945–1960. Daiva Dapkutė, Lithuanian Diaspora: from Displaced Persons to Diaspora Politics.

Piffer, Tomasso and Zubok, Vladislav, eds. Totalitarian Societies and Democratic Transition: Essays in Memory of Victor Zaslavsky. Trans. Vargiu, Riccardo James. Budapest: Central European University Press, 2017. 435 pp. Appendix. Notes. Index. $70.00, hard bound.

Tommaso Piffer and Vladislav Zubok, Introduction. I. Theory and Debate. Peter Baehr, Movement, Formation, and Maintenance in the Soviet Union: Victor Zaslavsky's Challenge to the Arendtian Theory of Totalitarianism. Giovanni Orsina, European Liberalism in the Age of Totalitarianisms. Vittorio Strada, Totalitarianism avant la lettre. Vladimir Tismaneanu, Totalitarianism and Ideological Hubris. Emilio Gentile, From Facts to Words from Militia Party to Fascist Totalitarianism. II. History and Society. Vladimir Pechatnov, Stalin the Statesman a Historian's Notes. Oleg Khlevniuk, Stalin's Dictatorship Priorities, Policies, and Results. Andrea Graziosi, The “National Question” in the Soviet Union. Inessa Yazhborovskaia, The Katyn Case History and Articulation of Official Discourse in Russia. David Holloway, Totalitarianism and Science the Nazi and the Soviet Experience. Maria Teresa Giusti, From Fascism to Communism the History of a Conversion. III. Beyond Totalitarianism. Veljko Vujačić, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Vasily Grossman Slavophile and Westernizer against the Totalitarian Soviet State. Antonella d'Amelia, “Without the free word, there are no free people”: Lydia Chukovskaya's Writings on Terror and Censorship. Lev Gudkov, The Transition from Totalitarianism to Authoritarianism in Russia. Gail Lapidus, Totalitarianism, Nationalism, and Challenges for Democratic Transition. Mark Kramer, Public Memory and the Difficulty of Overcoming the Communist Legacy Poland and Russia in Comparative Perspective.

Turán, Tamás and Wilke, Carsten, eds. Modern Jewish Scholarship in Hungary: The “Science of Judaism” between East and West. Europäisch-jüdische Studien – Beiträge 14. Oldenbourg: Walter de Gruyter Publishers, 2016. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Photographs. $168.00, hard bound.

Tamás Turán and Carsten Wilke, Wissenschaft des Judentums in Hungary: An Introduction. I. Testimonies. Géza Komoróczy, The Rabbinical Seminary of Budapest and Oriental Studies in Hungary. An interview with Chief Rabbi József Schweitzer, The Rabbinical Seminary and the War Years. Joshua Blau, Was R. Saadia Gaon's Arabic Translation of the Pentateuch Meant for Muslims Too? II. Elective Affinities. Carsten L. Wilke, From Talmud Torah to Oriental Studies: Itineraries of Rabbinical Students in Hungary. Gábor Schweitzer, Scholarship and Patriotism: Research on the History of Hungarian Jewry and the Rabbinical Seminary of Hungary—the First Decades. Vilmos Voigt, Suspension Bridge of Confidence: Folklore Studies in Jewish-Hungarian Scholarship. III. Transnational Connections. Ismar Schorsch, Beyond the Classroom: The Enduring Relationship between Heinrich L. Fleischer and Ignaz Goldziher. Mirjam Thulin, Connecting Centers of Wissenschaft des Judentums: David Kaufmann in Budapest, 1877–1899. Catherine Hézser, The International Context of Samuel Krauss's Scholarship: Network Connections between East and West. IV. Re-Orientalism. Ottfried Fraisse, From Geiger to Goldziher: Historical Method and its Impact on the Conception of Islam. Tamás Turán, Academic Religion: Goldziher as a Scholar and a Jew. Shaul Shaked, From Bacher to Telegdi: The Lure of Iran in Jewish Studies. V. Untrodden Paths. Günter Stemberger, Meir Friedmann–A Pioneering Scholar of Midrash. Isaiah M.Gafni, Adolf Büchler and the Historiography of Talmudic Judaism. Paul B. Fenton, Georges Vajda's Contribution to the Study of the Kabbalah. VI. Political Confrontations. Miklós Konrád, Hungarian Expectations and Jewish Self-Definitions, 1840–1914. Christian Wiese, Defending the Dignity of Judaism: Hungarian Jewish Scholars on Christian Prejudice, Racial Antisemitism, and the Exclusion of Wissenschaft des Judentums, 1880–1914. András Kovács, The Decades of an Ending: The Budapest Rabbinical Seminary after the Shoah.

Venclova, Tomas and Hinsey, Ellen. Magnetic North: Conversations with Tomas Venclova. Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2017. xvi, 405 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Chronology. Index. Maps. $39.99, hard bound; $24.95, paper.

Ellen Hinsey, Introduction: Magnetic North, Iron and Grace. Part One. Childhood and Family. The Soviets: 1939–1941. War Years: 1941–1944. Return of the Soviets. Postwar and Culture. Gymnasium. Antanas Venclova. Vilnius University. 1956 and Khrushchev's Secret Speech. Part Two. Boris Pasternak. Study Group and the KGB. Moscow: 1961–1964. Anna Akhmatova. Sign of Speech. Joseph Brodsky. Civil Society and Dissidence. The Lithuanian and Moscow Helsinki Groups. Preparation for Exile. Part Three. Czeslaw Milosz and Berkeley. Travels: Exile as Good Luck. The Junction: Poems.

Sauerland, Karol and Poerzgen, Yvonne, eds. Das kulturelle Gedächtnis Europas im Wandel: Literatur über Shoa und Gulag. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2016. 230 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Hard bound.

Karol Sauerland, Zur Einführung Europas kulturelles Gedächtnis im Wandel: Literatur über Shoa und Gulag. Antonia Grunenberg, “Lebende Leich name.., “Hannah Arendt über das Lager als Zentrum der totalitären Macht. Karol Sauerland, Die polnische Lagerliteratur vor dem Hintergrund der deutschen in den ersten Nachkriegsjahren. Inge Kleemann, Zum Muselmann werden: Zur Darstellung der Entmenschlichung in der autobiographischen Zeugnisliteratur. Sabine Offe, Wiederholungen: “Birkenau im Dezember” von Martin Lopez-Vega. Monika Tokarzewska, Julius Margolins und Gustaw Herling-Grudzińskis frühe Berichte aus dem Gulag: Suche nach einem Diskurs zwischen Zeugnis und Literatur. Dagmar Burkhart, Der Abusus des Menschen im Lager-Kosmos von Aleksandar Tišma. Rainer Grübel, Memoria vs. Narratio: Probleme des Verhältnisses von historischem Gedächtnis und fiktionaler Erzählung über Shoa sowie Gulag in Vasilij Grossmans Leben und Schicksal (Žizn΄ i sud΄ba) sowie Alles fließt (Vse tečet). Yvonne Pörzgen, Anstelle des Schweigens. Der Gulag in Evgenija Ginzburgs Krutoj maršrut und Vasilij Aksenovs Ožog. Wolfgang Stephan Kissel, Lagerliteratur als “erlittenes Dokument”: Varlam Šalamovs Erzählungen aus Kolyma.

Gautam, Lena. Recht und Ordnung: Mörder, Verräter und Unruhestifter vor spätzarischen Kriminalgerichten 1864-1917. Forschungen zur osteuropäischen Geschichte no. 84. Wiesbanden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2017. x, 258 pp. Notes. Index. €49.90, paper.

Kapitel 1. Der Anfang vom Ende der alten Ordnung. Aufstand der Bauern. Staatsferne und Legitimität. Der Zar, die Bauern und der Staat. Stockschläge und Peitschenhiebe: Die Machtmittel der lokalen Beamten. Rechtspluralismus vor der Reform. Kapitel 2. Neuordnung. Gerichtsreform. Rechtspluralismus nach der Reform. Recht und Ordnung. Kapitel 3. Repräsentationen des Rechts. Das Problem der Legitimität. Missionare des Rechtsstaates: Die Juristen und ihr Selbstverständnis. Räumliche Repräsentationen: Im Tempel der Themis. Untersuchungsrichter auf Reisen. Kapitel 4. Recht und Un-Ordnung: Justiz in Zeiten der Cholera, Saratov 1892/93. Hoffen und Bangen in Saratov. Das Misstrauen und die Seuche. Gerüchte in Mullovka. Gewalt als Misstrauensvotum. Un-Ordnung und Widerstand in Mullovka. Strafjustiz in Zeiten der Cholera: Der Fall Mullovka. Deutungsvarianten. Die Eingabe des Angeklagten. Die Verhandlung und das Urteil. Lokale Konflikte und die Spielregeln des Rechts. Kapitel 5. Ein gewöhnlicher Mordfall: Bechterev und die Frage der Schuld, Cherson 1909. Schuldfähigkeit im russischen Recht. Das Ende des freien Willens? Die Kriminalanthropologen und der Paradigmenwechsel in der Strafrechtslehre. Im Gerichtssaal: Die Anwendung wissenschaftlicher Überzeugungen. Die Gerichtspsychiatrie und die Spielregeln des Rechts im Wandel. Kapitel 6. Der Fall Lopuchin: Die Rhetorik des Rechts im Kampf um politische Legitimität. Wider den Staat: Zur Jurisdiktion politischer Delikte. Heimlichkeit und Öffentlichkeit. Dumadebatte. Der Prozess. Das Urteil. Reaktionen. Die Spielregeln des Rechts innerhalb der politischen Debatte. Neues Recht – neue Ordnung? Recht, Herrschaft und Ordnung im Wandel. Legitimität und Verdichtung von Staatlichkeit.

Bange, Oliver and Villaume, Poul, eds. The Long Detente: Changing Concepts of Security and Cooperation in Europe, 1950s–1980s. Budapest: Central European University Press, 2017. xii, 358 pp. Appendix. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $65.00, hard bound.

Part I: Long Perspectives on Détente. Gottfried Niedhart, East-West Conflict: Short Cold War and Long Détente. An Essay on Terminology and Periodization. Csaba Békés, The Long Détente and the Soviet Bloc, 1953–1983. Part II: East-West Trade. Mikhail Lipkin, Soviet Snowdrops in the Ice Age? The Surprising Attempt of an Early Economic Détente in 1952. Werner Lippert, European Long-Term Investments in Détente. The Implications of East-West Economic Cooperation. Part III: The Inextractability of External and Domestic Security. Oliver Bange, No End to “Political Ideological Diversion”: The Stasi Perspective as Circumstantial Evidence for a Long Détente. Rasmus Mariager, New Security Concepts and Transnational Party Networks, 1976–1983. The Socialist International, Scandilux, and the Overcoming of the Crisis of Détente. Part IV: Détente in Europe: Change in Perceptions. Laura Fasanaro, Continuity and Transformation. Alternate Visions of Italy's Three Decades of Détente. Sabine Loewe-Hannatzsch, Perception of the Other: “Kremlinologists” and “Westerners.” East and West German Analysts and Their Mutual Perceptions, 1977–1985. Part V: Détente in Europe: Change in Diplomatic Framework. Poul Villaume, Pathfinders and Perpetuators of Détente. Small States of NATO and the Long Détente: The Case of Denmark, 1969–1989. Christian Wenkel, Overcoming the Crisis of Détente, 1979−1983: Coordinating Eastern Policies between Paris, Bonn, and London. Part VI: The U.S. Story: From Cooperation to Confrontation and Back. Gry Thomasen, Lyndon B. Johnson and the Building of East-West Bridges: Catching Up with Détente in Europe, 1963–1966. Stephan Kieninger, Between Power Politics and Morality: The United States, the Long Détente, and the Transformation of Europe, 1969–1985.

Orttung, Robert and Zhemukhov, Sufian N.. Putin's Olympics: The Sochi Games and the Evolution of Twenty-First Century Russia. BASEES/Routledge Series on Russian and East European Studies, vol. 109. London: Routledge, 2017. xiv, 135 pp. Appendix. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Tables. $160.00, hard bound.

1. Introduction: How Putin's Political System Led to Olympic Corruption, Military Adventurism and State-Sponsored Doping. 2. The 2014 Sochi Olympic Mega-Project and Russia's Political Economy. 3. Political and Civil Society and the Sochi Olympics. 4. Security: Fighting Terrorism and Strengthening the Military. 5. International Issues: Circassians, the Former Soviet Countries, and the West. 6. The Legacy of the Sochi Olympics.

Daskalov, Roumen Dontchev, Mishkova, Diana, and Marinov, Tchavdar. Entangled Histories of the Balkans - Volume Four: Concepts, Approaches, and (Self-) Representations. Balkan Studies Library. Leiden: Brill, 2017. xviii, 649 pp. Notes. Index. Photographs. €199.00, paper.

Roumen Daskalov, The Balkans: Region and Beyond. Diana Mishkova, The Concept of the Balkans/Southeastern Europe. Alexander Vezenkov, Space and Communications in the Balkans. Andreas Lyberatos, Time and Timekeeping in the Balkans: Representations and Realities.

Constantin Iordachi, An “Alsace-Lorraine of the Balkans”: Historians, Public Diplomacy, and the Romanian-Bulgarian Dispute over Dobrogea. Ada Haidu, The Search for National Architectural Styles in Serbia, Romania, and Bulgara during the second half of the 19-the Century and the First Decades of the 20-th Century. Tchavdar Marinov, The “Balkan House”: Interpretations and Symbolic Appropriations of the Ottoman-Era Vernacular Architecture in the Balkans. Rossitza Guentcheva, Block № 18, Auschwitz.

Kudaibergenova, Diana T., Rewriting the Nation in Modern Kazakh Literature: Elites and Narratives. Contemporary Central Asia: Societies, Politics, and Cultures. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2017. xxviii, 227 pp. Bibliography. Index. $95.00, hard bound.

Chapter 1: National Survival, Alash, and Modern Kazakh Literary Debates. Chapter 2: Self-Orientalization and Re-writing the Narrative. Chapter 3: The Formation of Soviet-Kazakh Literature Canons. Chapter 4: Mukhtar Auezov's Abai Zholy and the Encyclopedia of the Kazakh Nation. Chapter 5: Koshpendiler and the Re-Discovery of the Past: Canonizing Nomadism. Chapter 6: Magauin's Cultural Archaeology in Kazakhstan's National History and Literature. Chapter 7: Internationalism, Post-Colonialism, and Kazakh Soviet Literature in the 1960s and 1980s: Anuar Alimzhanov, Satimzhan Sanbayev, and Murat Auezov. Chapter 8: Olzhas Suleimenov and the Un-Bounded Imagination of the Past. Chapter 9: December 1986 and the National Imagination in the Post-Independent Era. Chapter 10: Timeless and Post-National: Gerold Belger's Narration on Kazakhstan.

Arns, Inke, Chubarov, Igor, and Sasse, Sylvia, eds. Evreinov, Nikolai and Others: “The Storming of the Winter Palace.” Trans. Heise, Bernard, Riff, David, and Schnee, Jordan Lee. Think Art of the Institute for Critical Theory-Zurich University of the Arts and the Center for Arts and Cultural Theory. Zurich: Diaphanes, 2016. 320 pp. Appendix. Notes. Glossary. Index. Illustrations. Plates. Photographs. $40.00, paper.

Protagonists. Nikolai Evreinov, The Storming of the Winter Palace (1920). Nikolai Evreinov, The Storming of the Winter Palace. An Article by the production's director in chief (1920). Nikolai Evreinov, The Storming of the Winter Palace. Recollections of the staging to celebrate the third anniversary of the October Revolution (unpublished typescript, 1924). Konstantin Derzhavin, Open-Air Theater (1920). Konstantin Derzhavin, A Miracle (1920). Konstantin Derzhavin, The Mass as Such (1920). Konstantin Derzhavin, The Storming of the Winter Palace. On the fifth anniversary of the staging (1925). Dmitri Tëmkin, Iosif Slepian, What Is Required of the Audience during the Production (1920). Lev Nikulin, November Eight 1920 (1920). Lev Nikulin, Baltic Sea (1932). Sergei Radlov, On Mass Actions and More Important Things (1923). Iuri Annenkov, Nokolai Evreinov (1960). Nikolai Petrov, Mass Spectacles (1960). Photographs of the 1920 staging in sequence. Contemporary witnesses. Anon, Announcement on the Decoration of Petrograd during the Third Anniversary Celebrations of October (1920). Vlagin, On the October Celebrations (1920). Anon, The Staging of the Storming of the Winter Palace (1920). F. Lenski, An Exhibition in Memory of the Great October (1920). Anon, At a Rehearsal for the Staging of The Storming of the Winter Palace (1920). Anon, Motion Pictures and the Staging of The Storming of the Winter Palace (1920). Anon, The Storming of the Winter Palace. An Eye-Witness Report (1920). Anon, Proletarian Action. At the Staging The Storming of the Winter Palace (1920). Nikolai Shubski, On Uritski Square (Impression of a Muscovite) (1920). Anon, The Storming of the Winter Palace (1920). Arthur Holitscher, The Chaos of the Arts (1921). Adrian Piotrovski, The Pageants of 1920 (1922). Platon Kerzhentsev, The Successes of the New Theater (1922). René Fülöp-Miller, Theatricalized Life (1926). Nina Gourfinkel, The Monumentalist Style of the Revolutionary Spectacles (1930). Aleksei Gvozdev, Adiran Piotrovski, The Theaters and Pageants of Petrograd in the Epoch of War Communism (1933). Sergei Eisenstein, Cinema and Theater. Nikolai Evreinov (1943). Historical photographic “documents.” Leonid Volkov-Lannit, History is Written with the Lens (1971). Photographs of the theatrical Storming of the Winter Palace as historical documents. Essays. Igor Chubarov. Nikolai Evreinov's “Revolution In Itself.” Sylvia Sasse, “History is Written with the Lens:” How the Photo of the Theatrical Storming becomes a Historical Document. Inke Arns, Battlefield History: Artistic Reenactments as Participatory Deconstructions of History.