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Article: Post-communism: an infantile disorder.
- Article from:
- The National Interest
- Article date:
- June 22, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 The National Interest, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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It is easy to describe developments in the countries of the old Eastern Bloc. You don't even need to be very well-informed about what's going on: an acquaintanceship with the past will serve you much better than a knowledge of recent events. Indeed, in this part of the world, to know the past - especially the distant past - is to understand the present.
That, or something very like it, is the major premise of many of the better-known books to have appeared over the last few years, purporting to offer Western readers a guide through the tangled terrain of Central and Eastern Europe. The very titles of works like The Rebirth of History, Balkan Ghosts, Exit into ...