The Rebirth of East Europe (4th Edition)

by Michael G. Roskin

Release Date: 31 May, 2001

Edition: Paperback

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Roskin...

Of all the bad things I have read on Eastern Europe, this book is the worst. I already wrote a long criticism in reviewing another of Roskin's books, so I will not repeat it here, although he deserves all the criticism he can get. If "chitatel"'s students liked Roskin's book, it only goes to show how harmful the book is: uninitiated students, without other access to information on the region, read Roskin as if he were telling the truth.

Simplistic Cold War book

While the book does present events in 20th century Eastern and Central Europe fairly succinctly, the author is clearly guided throughout by his political convictions. While an anti-communist stand is not surprising, Roskin's is quite virulent, and prevents any sense of academic detachment from appearing in the book. Besides, as one of the other reviewers noted, Roskin stoops to absurd simplifications in order to explain events in the region. For example, he blames the weakness of "East European" states on the fact that they were part of empires in the past. But, pardon me, what country in the world was not, at one time, part of an empire? How does that make "East Europe" different from any other region in the world?

As for the more technical aspects of the book, I found the maps in it to be crude, and the use of diacritics on East-Central European names very patchy: Roskin applied them to some names and not to others, perhaps revealing the fundamental problem with this book: a lack of first-hand knowledge of the region.