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Cities after the Fall of Communism: Reshaping Cultural Landscapes and European Identity

A new book published by Woodrow Wilson Center Press examines cultural reorientation in post-1989 East Europe.

WASHINGTON—Woodrow Wilson Center Press has published a new book, Cities after the Fall of Communism: Reshaping Cultural Landscapes and European Identity, edited by John J. Czaplicka, Nida Gelazis, and Blair A. Ruble. It is copublished with the Johns Hopkins University Press.

Cities after the Fall of Communism traces the cultural reorientation of East European cities since 1989. Analyzing the architecture, commemorative practices, and urban planning of cities such as Lviv, Vilnius, and Odessa, the contributors to this volume demonstrate how history may be selectively re-imagined in light of present political and cultural realities. These essays show that while East European cities gravitate nostalgically toward Habsburg, Baltic, Imperial Russian, and Germanic pasts, they are also embracing new urban identities grounded in ethnic-national, European, Western, and global contexts. Ultimately, the editors argue that one can see a "New Europe" taking shape in these cities, where a strained discourse between different versions of the past and variously envisioned futures is being set in stone, steel, and glass.

"Speaks not only to present-day policy debates in Eastern Europe but to broader disciplinary questions about the nature of history."—Stephen Bittner, Sonoma State University

"This is an excellent, novel, timely, and sophisticated book which represents an authentic contribution to the field. It should interest specialists, as well as other readers interested in urban and regional history, post-socialist transformations, and the construction of cultural identity."—Sonia Hirt, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

John J. Czaplicka is an affiliate at the Center for European Studies at Harvard University and co-chair of the European Cities Study Group. Nida Gelazis is program associate and editor for the East European Studies program at the Woodrow Wilson Center. Blair A. Ruble is director of the Center's Comparative Urban Studies Project as well as the Kennan Institute and coeditor, with Czaplicka, of Composing Urban History and the Constitution of Civic Identities, also published by Woodrow Wilson Center Press.

Cities after the Fall of Communism: Reshaping Cultural Landscapes and European Identity is distributed by the Johns Hopkins University Press, available online at www.press.jhu.edu or by telephone at 1-800-537-5487. The list price is $65.00 for hardcover.

Woodrow Wilson Center Press publishes books by fellows, resident scholars, and staff written in substantial part at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Titles range from popular accounts of historical topics to fundamental reviews of scholarly fields to authoritative background on important policy issues. For more information about the Press, or to search its backlist of titles, please visit www.wilsoncenter.org/press.