The Grooves of Change

The Grooves of Change is the culmination of J. F. Brown's distinguished career as an assessor of Eastern Europe, in which he traces events in this diverse and disruption-riddled region from the communist era to the years of transition that followed the fall of the Berlin Wall to the present. In this volume, Brown provides specific analyses of the development of liberal democratic culture in the former communist countries of Eastern Europe - Albania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the successor-states of Yugoslavia. While acknowledging that the term "Eastern Europe" began to fall into disuse with the end of the Cold War, Brown uses it to provide a framework in which to discuss the abiding features of the modern history of this section of the world, such as its basic continuity, the prominence of ethnic and national factors, and the region's dependence on great powers or combinations of powers outside it. He explains the significance of the growing gulf between East Central Europe and South Eastern Europe; the overall political and economic deprivation, its effect on the people who live there, and the urgency of change; and the intense variety within Eastern Europe that has defied definitions and generalisation. Finally, Brown discusses the need for continuing assistance by the West and examines what the twenty-first century may bring to this constantly changing part of the world. Those seeking a clear overview of events in Eastern Europe during the recent past and the state of these nations now will benefit from this incisive study by J. F. Brown. J. F. Brown was Distinguished Scholar in Residence, RFE/RL Research Institute, Munich from 1991 to 1993. He is the author of many books, including Surge to Freedom (1991) and Hopes and Shadows.

J. F. Brown has been a Visiting Professor at Columbia University; the University of California, Los Angeles; the University of California, Berkeley; and American University in Bulgaria