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Cambridge Studies in Modern Economic History
Central and Eastern Europe, 1944–1993: Detour from the Periphery to the Periphery
Ivan Berend uses a vast range of sources, as well as his own personal experience, to analyze the fortunes of the postwar socialist regimes in Eastern Europe. His comparative approach stretches beyond the confines of economic history to produce a work of political economy, encompassing the cultural and personal forces that have influenced the development of the "Eastern Bloc" countries over the past fifty years. The book is distinguished by its unique combination of time, region and topic, and is a major contribution to the economic history of the twentieth century.
- GenresHistory
436 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 5, 2019
Okay so, after once more, the week of hell (a very sudden death in the family and that’s all I will devote to that subject) I was somehow finally able to read this week’s book, Central and Eastern Europe 1944-1993: Detour from the Periphery to the Periphery by Ivan Berend.
The book covers in great detail, the post-war Soviet Union, most specifically the economic development of the area during the last part of the twentieth century, through immediate post-war times, followed by post Stalin and even covering the immediate reconstruction of former Soviet ‘states’ (countries like Yugoslavia and Hungary, that had primarily been agricultural based) following the fall of the Soviet Union.
So, Basically (at least in my understanding) so after World War II, Europe was a mess, which everyone recognized. However, the Soviet Union decided that they would enforce (this is the key word here, enforce) a five-year recovery plan for the area’s economic development to get back on track.
Of course, rather than enforce it through regulations and legislative features typical of a Western free market, these plans went through thanks to solid Soviet Union tactics, usually along the lines of fear for you and your loved one’s lives if it didn’t go through.
While the five-year plan didn’t plan out exactly like those in control would have liked, it at least held for the majority of the remainder of the Soviet Union time, though it slightly faltered due to the lack of influence from the Western free market.
Wow, look at me! Able to talk about economic development in Post-War Soviet states like a professional historian. Or more likely economist.
The ability to do this, comes from Berend’s writing. Which is done while not in a light and breezy tone (which would probably be too informal for this type of subject) is done in a way that even a novice like myself in Post-Soviet Economics could not only learn a great deal from, but also be able to enjoy.
My only wish, of course, would to be an updated form of this book, or even a sequel. I only mention this because I checked the date of being published, and while my edition was printed in 2007, the book was initially published in 1996 (I should, of course, be aware of this because the book ends in 1993, two years after the Soviet Union was dissolved) and well, a lot has happened in terms of economic development (some of it good, and some of it, well, it could have been better)
Overall, I quite enjoyed this book, and how it didn’t make me feel dumb in a subject I knew so little about before reading this book. Hopefully the rest of the books this semester take the same approach.
The book covers in great detail, the post-war Soviet Union, most specifically the economic development of the area during the last part of the twentieth century, through immediate post-war times, followed by post Stalin and even covering the immediate reconstruction of former Soviet ‘states’ (countries like Yugoslavia and Hungary, that had primarily been agricultural based) following the fall of the Soviet Union.
So, Basically (at least in my understanding) so after World War II, Europe was a mess, which everyone recognized. However, the Soviet Union decided that they would enforce (this is the key word here, enforce) a five-year recovery plan for the area’s economic development to get back on track.
Of course, rather than enforce it through regulations and legislative features typical of a Western free market, these plans went through thanks to solid Soviet Union tactics, usually along the lines of fear for you and your loved one’s lives if it didn’t go through.
While the five-year plan didn’t plan out exactly like those in control would have liked, it at least held for the majority of the remainder of the Soviet Union time, though it slightly faltered due to the lack of influence from the Western free market.
Wow, look at me! Able to talk about economic development in Post-War Soviet states like a professional historian. Or more likely economist.
The ability to do this, comes from Berend’s writing. Which is done while not in a light and breezy tone (which would probably be too informal for this type of subject) is done in a way that even a novice like myself in Post-Soviet Economics could not only learn a great deal from, but also be able to enjoy.
My only wish, of course, would to be an updated form of this book, or even a sequel. I only mention this because I checked the date of being published, and while my edition was printed in 2007, the book was initially published in 1996 (I should, of course, be aware of this because the book ends in 1993, two years after the Soviet Union was dissolved) and well, a lot has happened in terms of economic development (some of it good, and some of it, well, it could have been better)
Overall, I quite enjoyed this book, and how it didn’t make me feel dumb in a subject I knew so little about before reading this book. Hopefully the rest of the books this semester take the same approach.
January 5, 2016
Read this long long book in my school's library. It's interesting. Hope can tour around there someday, by train, go from Russia by train to Berlin, then down to Balkans, up to Estonia.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews