Religious organizations in many countries of the communist world have served as agents for the preservation, defense, and reinforcement of nationalist feelings, and in playing this role have frequently been a source of frustration to the Communist Party elites. Although the relationship between governments and religious groups varies according to the particular country and group in question, the mosaic of these relationships constitutes a revealing picture of the political reform shaping the lives of Soviet and East European citizens.

"Social Currents in Eastern Europe "traces the diverse social currents that have developed alongside and interacted with political and economic forces to bring about change in Eastern Europe. In this second edition--which significantly updates and expands the previous edition to include a new introduction, revisions throughout, as well as five new chapters, including timely material on ethnic war in the former Yugoslavia--Ramet extends and develops the theory of social change upon which the book is based.
Ramet draws on interviews conducted over a ten-year period with individuals active in...

"Nihil Obstat"--Latin for "nothing stands in the way"--examines the interplay between religion and politics in East-Central Europe and Russia. While focusing on the postcommunist, late twentieth century, Sabrina P. Ramet discusses developments as far back as the eleventh century to explain the patterns that have developed over time and to show how they still affect contemporary interecclesiastical relations as well as those among Church, state, and society.
Based on interview research in Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, and Macedonia, and on materials published in...

Most of the action taking place in this story occurred in the mid-1980s, when the threat of industrial pollution was already well known. The narrator was perhaps one of the first to realize that industrial pollution was interconnected with a vast international conspiracy of brain surgeons. He found evidence of this conspiracy not only in the proliferation of brain surgery clinics and in their activities, but in coded messages embedded in bus schedules, in syringe marks on fruit, even in television commercials. Although he played only a minor role in the struggle against the brain surgeons, he...

Second edition enlarged. Dictators' pets are too often ignored-but no longer They're all here in this hilarious collection of madcap ditties: Lenin's cat, Hitler's dog, Qaddafi's sweet-scented camel, Caligula's horse, Mao's cockroach (he banned real pets), Stalin's spider, and many more. The volume also includes philosophers' songs and a Holy Roman opera, "Turmoil in Brindisi" about a long-forgotten ecumenical council called by Pope Sixtus the Sixth, an equally forgotten pope. Written over a period of 35 years, these jottings are also a record of a lifetime of laughter. "Sabrina Ramet's...

In der Buchreihe des Instituts fur Ost- und Sudosteuropaforschung (IOS), den -Sudosteuropaische Arbeiten-, werden herausragende Monographien sowie Sammelbande, Nachschlagewerke und Editionen zur Geschichte und Gegenwart Sudosteuropas veroffentlicht. Die umfassende Rezeption im In- und Ausland weist die Reihe als auf ihrem Feld fuhrend aus. Die Reihe fuhrt damit seit Ende 2006 auch die inhaltlichen Bereiche der fruheren -Untersuchungen zur Gegenwartskunde Sudosteuropas- fort.

Herausgeber

Ulf Brunnbauer

Konrad Clewing

Redaktion

Konrad Clewing

A volume of humorous verse, from epic poems on American and global history to the role of bunnies and kitties in high affairs. "Joining acute analysis of world affairs with rhyme (and often song), Sabrina Ramet's Cheese Pirates is simultaneously uproarious, surprising, and insightful. From epic poems on American and global history to musings on the role of bunnies and kitties in high affairs, Cheese Pirates both amuses and forces you to ponder deeply the role of government and personality. A fine sequel to Ramet's earlier compendium, Pets of Great Dictators, Cheese Pirates teases as it...

Traces the diverse social currents that developed alongside and interacted with political and economic forces to bring about change in Eastern Europe. This book shows how the processes leading to the collapse of communism began more than a decade earlier and how they were necessarily manifested in spheres as diverse as religion and rock music.

Provides an account of the politics, religion, and social change in the post-communist world of Eastern Europe and Russia.