A history of modern Europe

John M. Merriman

Why a new history of modern Europe? The collapse of Communism in 1989- 1990 and the breakup of the Soviet Union have redrawn the map of Central and Eastern Europe. A reconfigured Europe calls for a new history. This survey of modern European history explores the roots of the economic and political problems that continue to beset Western and Eastern Europe. For example, it shows how the simmering ethnic tensions that burst into bloody civil war in Bosnia after the disintegration of Yugoslavia echoed the quarrels that eroded the stately Habsburg monarchy a century earlier. To convey an understanding of the complex tensions that still exist in Europe, this survey offers balanced coverage of Russia and Eastern Europe, as well as of the West. I have adopted a narrative framework with the goals of both telling a story and analyzing the central themes of the European experience. Each chapter of A History of Modern Europe can be read as part of a larger, interconnected story. Moreover, this book stresses the dynamics of economic, social, and political change. - Preface.