Thinking Through Transition

"It is not easy for historians to apply their methods to a period that does not yet have a clear end" is the first sentence in this book, revealing the challenge that a new generation of scholars took at writing an intellectual history of post-communist East Central Europe. Post-communism can be understood both as a period of scarcity and preponderance of ideas. It is the dramatic eclipsing of the dissident legacy-as well as the older political traditions-and the rise of technocratic and post-political governance. Eighteen essays by authors from the region discuss how major domains of political thought (liberalism, conservatism, the Left, populism and memory politics) have been fairing in their countries. The studies, grounded in empirical research sensitive to local contexts, detail a history of adaptations, entanglements, and unintended consequences.