The title of this book is a statement. After one and half centuries of debates on the definition and characterization of this problem region of European history (Mitteleuropa, Zwischen-Europa, Ostmitteleuropa, “Borderlands of Civilization,” East-Central Europe, Europe de Centre-Est), it comes forward with a simple and practical solution: it proposes to describe in conjunction the histories of three states and gives it the slightly reductive denomination of Central Europe. This choice is convincingly argued in an introductory chapter written by Nora Berend, titled “Did Central Europe Exist in the Middle Ages?” With an acute sense of critical alertness, she passes in review a most ambitious selection of historical works on the concept of this region and on the tentatives for its use in the medieval period. After duly pondering the strengths and weaknesses of such “regional” histories, she proposes the choice of the present book as “one possible subdivision,” not isolated from larger units and at the same time moving beyond “‘parochial, isolated, self-centered’ national histories” (38–39). It proposes to study “the parallels as well as the differences” in the development of these three countries in a systematic manner, concentrating on the “formative period” (39) of their polities and the first three centuries of their existence in the High Middle Ages.

The book is based on an important set of preceding common examinations that resulted in the multicontributor volume Christianization and the Rise of Christian Monarchy: Scandinavia, Central Europe and Rus' c. 900–1200 (2007), edited by Nora Berend. That book included among its writers Polish archaeologist Przemysław Urbańczyk, a coauthor of the present volume. The third coauthor here, Przemysław Wiszewski, who assumed responsibility for the parts on Bohemia, has also been working on comparative regional history. After clearing the conceptual issues, the book discusses the history of the region in six chapters, providing parallel histories of the three countries, arranged in a thematic order that allows the reader a recurrent consideration of the overlapping features and the differences in their historical evolution. The thematic order of the six chapters starts with the discussion of the questions of “origins,” then moves on to Christianization, the formation of polities and government, society and economy, ecclesiastical history, and finally to a description of “new developments of the thirteenth century,” which will significantly reshape the area in the subsequent centuries.

The historical overview in these intertwined narratives provides a thorough overview and a critical reassumption of relevant recent local research in these countries. This might be the most significant achievement of this book, since the source material and the historiographical treatment of these countries—for various cultural and linguistic reasons—has been largely ignored by the broader academic community dealing with the Middle Ages, and also because, especially in the nearly three decades after the collapse of Communism, there has been a considerable renewal of medieval studies. The abundant footnotes—as far as I can judge from the Hungarian part—really do represent a full, balanced, and critically digested overview of the state of art and the most recent findings and debates in historiography, as well as, where relevant, archaeology and art history. In sensitive cases, such as the traditional and for various ideological reasons still popular view of Hungarian ethnogenesis (61–68) and their European raids (126–29)—or the arguments of some Polish historians for the alleged coronation of Bolesław I the Brave (121–22); or again the Třeštík–Krzemieńska model on the genesis of knightly estate in Bohemia and Poland (194–97); or the overly positive views on Polish urbanization in the thirteenth century (454–55)—the authors do not hesitate to express their warranted skepticism and contrary views.

With all this praise, one could perhaps voice some criticism to two features of the book: its narrative structure and its lack of broader contextualization. All the chapters and subchapters are structured according to the following pattern: a brief introductory note at the beginning of the chapter and its main sections, and then, in each of those four to eight sections, separate subsections on Bohemia, Poland, and Hungary by the three authors. Though one perceives the jointly elaborated criteria and can appreciate the elaborate taxonomy of each thematic chapter, and while these individual treatments do communicate with each other and allow the readers to draw many important comparative conclusions, it would have been valuable to have some comparative assessments also by the authors on the key problems discussed: the different rhythms of Christianization, the different types of nobility, the links of ecclesiastical and monastic organizations.

As regards the broader contextualization, there are three subchapters that partly take care of these problems—“Two Empires and Other Neighbors” and “Relations between the Central European Polities”, and “Expansion” (221–49)—but a similar opening would have been welcome for social and economic history, and also for the ecclesiastical history, in particular a more elaborated consideration of the relations with the papacy and with Eastern Orthodoxy.

Having said this, one should return to the principal merits of the book: the richness of the systematically ordered, faithfully presented, and critically filtered, most up-to-date historical information on the medieval formation of these three countries. Nora Berend, Przemysław Urbańczyk, and Przemysław Wiszewski have done an immense service to their Hungarian, Polish, and Bohemian colleagues and to anyone in universities and historical research institutes who want to be initiated into the complexity of the historical documents and interpretations of these three countries.