*** ANTOINE FLEURY, LUBOR JILEK (Editors): Une Europe malgré tout, 1945-1990. Contacts et réseaux culturels, intellectuels et scientifiques entre Européens dans la guerre froide - Cultural, Intellectual and Scientific Contacts and Networks among Europeans during the Cold War - Kulturelle, intellektuelle und wissenschaftliche Kontakte un Netze unter Europäern im Kalten Krieg. Presses Interuniversitaires Européennes / Peter Lang (1 av. Maurice, B-1050 Brussels. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - fax: 3761727 - Email: pie@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). "L'Europe et les Europes, 19e et 20e siècles" series, No. 9. 2009, 477 pp., €42.50. ISBN 978-90-5201-097-7.
In this extremely good book, the author returns to a bitter observation made to him by Bronislaw Geremek at the end of an event at the College of Europe in Bruges a few years ago, “unfortunately, contact between intellectuals from Western and Eastern Europe are less substantial and more infrequent than during the Cold War …” The Polish expert in Medieval history suggested that the quality of debate had significantly diminished between these “Europes” just at the time when the fall of the Iron Curtain and reunion was occurring. The reasons behind its increasing indifference in the Other Europe is not the subject matter of the authors of this book, even though this subject obviously deserves to be scientifically examined in other studies. On the other hand, the historians and researchers meeting up in September 2003 at the European Coppet Centre in Switzerland confirm (and provide the proof to support their arguments) the veracity of the second part of the argument put forward by Geremek, the Polish and European intellectual, who died far too young. Despite all the different political and ideological obstacles that prevailed throughout the Cold War, there was a blossoming in, “ ties cultivated by the actors involved, who were often independent of respective government bodies - the artists, musicians, writers and historians or physicists” as pointed out by Professor Fleury (University of Geneva) in his introductory chapter. It was even distinctly imprinted in the genes of the powerful body that issued the invitations to this colloquy, of which this book provides a faithful account, namely, the International Contemporary History Association, which, since 1968, judged that there was, “a moral obligation on the part of the university elite to develop human and scientific ties beyond the Iron Curtain”.
This book was requested to provide an insight into the research made possible with the opening up of the archives, particularly those of the cultural associations, “often pure products of the Cold War”, and the political parties, beginning with those of the Communist parties. The book was structured in five different areas. The first focuses on “Cultural Exchange Institutions”. In these pages we find a contribution focusing on, “US visions of a reunited Europe” in light of the action carried out by CIA funded organisations in Strasbourg to prepare a body that was ready to take over, following the liberation from the Communist stranglehold they were hoping for, based on East European exiles. Other essays focus on the initiatives taken by each of the two camps at the time to illustrate the superiority of its model of society over that of its rival. The second part of the book sees the different authors specifically tackling, “exchange networks for intellectuals and academics” and the variety of initiatives taken by an elite that was anxious to maintain contact between thinkers, writers and other academics from the two sides in an effort to safeguard, “the European mind”. The International Geneva Meetings and the European Centre for Culture (dear to the heart of Rougemont), the European Culture Society, The French Pen Club, the Freedom of Culture Congress, as well as the International Committee of Historical Sciences and the European Intellectual Support Foundation, Lubor Jilek (the University of Geneva European Institute and curator at the European Archive Centre at Coppet) all seek to illustrate how the action of this organisation helped to encourage the emergence of Solidarnosc. It is then the turn of the, “federalist, pacifist and religious networks” that are explored, with the first part beginning with a contribution by Bertrand Vayssière, who demonstrates that the European Union of federalists was rapidly restrained by a “forced conversion … to the situation of a divided Europe”. Its ideal of a “Third Force Europe”, which was neither Communist nor capitalist, led it down a blind alley or at least onto the sidelines of the movement in a divided Europe. The fourth part of the book tackles the different aspects observed in the “cinematographic and musical networks”. The latter is introduced under the title of, “Trans-European Activities and Perceptions of the Other Europe”. Studies on the different aspects illustrate the originality of the initiatives taken by certain figures or by certain governments in an effort to overcome the east west division.
In conclusion, this book exercises a seductive power not simply through its depth and scientific strength but also because its main benefit is how it casts light on the forgotten men and events in recent history but who in their small or substantial ways participated in the gestation of a reunited Europe, even though this subject is less talked about since this Europe actually came into being …
Michel Theys
*** GEORGE MCKAY, CHRISTOPHER WILLIAMS, MICHAEL GODDARD, NEIL FOXLEE, EGIDIJA RAMANAUSKAITE (editors): Subcultures and New Religious Movements in Russia and East-Central Europe. Peter Lang (1 Moosstrasse, Postfach 350, CH-2542 Pieterlen. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - fax: 3761727 - Email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ).” Cultural Identity Studies” series, No. 15. 2009, 309 pp., €53.30. ISBN 978-3-03911-921-9.
Ethnologists, sociologists, philosophers, linguists and other cultural academic specialists provide a passionate insight into the largely unknown and sometimes demonised world of subcultures and new religious movements that have proliferated in Russia and Central and Eastern Europe since the fall of the former Soviet empire. These scientific insights were facilitated by way of a research programme financed over three years by the European Union and in which several universities from this part of Europe and the United Kingdom participated. The first part of the book focuses on the different subcultures, which although they are not an appendage of this part of the world, they are perceived as the product of, “specifically local post-socialist history” and in this connection are as different to each other as are the similar cultural movements in the West. This, “Globalization of Subcultures in Eastern Europe”, according to the formula developed by George McKay and Michael Goddard (University of Salford), is translated, for example, into the Russian skinhead movement of Kazan, the inheritors of the criminal gangs or their Lithuanian alter-egos, also motivated by nationalist ideology. Similarly, the other contributions made in this book illustrate that the supporters of the hip-hop movement in Romania and Estonia display both in substance and in style, at least as many differences as points they have in common. The final three contributions in the first part of the book focus on the 1960s counterculture movements, namely the Lithuanian hippies, as well as the “Euro Indians” and an eco-village in Slovakia. In the second part of the book, the authors tackle the different problems encountered in the new religious movements. They consider that these movements are not necessarily going to flourish as a reaction to the atheism that prevailed under the communist regimes. Different contributions demonstrate that those new on the religious and spiritual scene in the East are sometimes confronted with political and religious constraints in certain countries, particularly Romania and Russia. The stakes of play, therefore, in these countries, to varying degrees, involve the practical application of individual freedom, pluralism and tolerance.
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*** CHRISTIANE TIMMERMAN, JOHAN LEMAN, HANNELORE ROOS, BARBARA SEGAERT (editors: In-Between Spaces. Christian and Muslim Minorities in Transition in Europe and the Middle East. Presses Interuniversitaires Européennes / Peter Lang (see address attached). "Gods, Humans and Religions" series, no. 18. 2009, 284 pp. €36.50. ISBN 978-90-5201-565-1.
This excellent book provides a report on a seminar organised by the Saint-Ignatius University Centre of Antwerp in December 2007, which sought to provide an interdisciplinary examination into the fate of minority Christians in the Middle East and Muslims in Europe. Judging by the evidence, the secularisation phenomenon is not a phenomenon that is experienced worldwide, as global events continually demonstrate. Even in Europe where it has become the norm, it has now become quite obvious, as pointed out by anthropologist Christiane Timmerman in her preface that, “religion remains at the heart of understanding the world for many people”. The subject of this book is therefore looking at how religious minorities interact with the dominant cultures. A twofold observation is made: Christian minorities lived in the Middle East even before the Islamicisation of the region, whereas the Muslim presence in Europe is a very recent phenomenon. The problematic of a religious minority's position in the Middle East is, “fundamentally legal in its essence, sometimes with social consequences”, while that of a minority in Western Europe is, “fundamentally social in its essence, sometimes with legal restrictions with regard to expression at a cultural level”, as borne out with the example of wearing the veil. The first part of the book focuses on the history and development of the status of minorities in the Middle East, particularly in Iraq and Turkey; the second part of the book explores the situation of Muslims in Europe in light of examples taken from Belgium, the Netherlands and United Kingdom. Questions involving conversions to Islam and specifically Muslim education are critically examined. The third part of the book focuses on the implications of all minorities in the Internet revolution, which, as explained by Johan Leman, allows them to promote, “homogenisation in trans-national communities but antagonism towards the Other”. Finally, the last part of the book looks at the development potential for a Europeanised Islam.
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*** LEONIDAS DONSKIS (Editor): A Litmus Test Case of Modernity. Examining Modern Sensibilities and the Public Domain in the Baltic States and the Turn of the Century. Peter Lang (see address attached). “Interdisciplinary Studies on Central and Eastern Europe” series, No. 5. 2009, 314 pp, €50.90. ISBN 978-3-0343-0335-4.
This collectively written book examines the history and changes lived through by the Baltic countries from their creation to the present day. It seeks to understand the socio-economic, immigration, racial and historical questions that come to the fore in these countries. As an MEP and former university professor in political sciences, Leonidas Donskis, first of all, examines the origins of these countries, to demonstrate what developments have occurred up until the present day. The book then seeks to provide an understanding of the intensity and depth of the socio-economic and cultural changes that have occurred in Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, as well as the diverse influences on these countries, particularly that from the Soviet Union during the years of the Iron Curtain. The book also seeks to tackle themes such as accession into the European Union, the wave of company relocations experienced in Europe, ethnic and migration questions, development of the media and the Second World War.
*** BARBARA GOODWIN, KEITH TAYLOR: The Politics of Utopia. A Study in Theory and practice. Peter Lang (see address attached). “Ralahine Utopian Studies” series, No. 5. 2009, 325 pp, €38. ISBN 978-3-03911-080-3.
Originally published in 1982, this book remains an indispensable instrument for understanding the importance of the concept of utopias in political theory and practice. Refuting the largely held conviction that utopia no longer has its place in modern political life, the authors of this book argue that it is, above all, about, on the contrary, the particular virtue located in the capacity to transcend current circumstantial restrictions by drawing inspiration from alternative thinking and opening up new paths for political action. In the wake of the financial and banking crisis in recent months, who would dare claim that realism and pragmatism are always the best way for carrying out politics? In 1982, Keith Taylor asked whether ecology would emerge as a utopian movement and identified in society, trends that would ultimately judge economic growth as no longer something that was indefinitely sustainable. For Taylor, this opened up another avenue, which, he believed could lead to a new form of society based on a balance between humanity and the environment. Almost 30 years later, significant steps have been accomplished in this direction, even if the “capacity for survival” remains precarious. Although Taylor died almost four years ago, his close collaborator and university professor in political science at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, is not mistaken in pointing out in her preface that Taylor's diagnosis is particularity pertinent now that the collapse of the major banks in the most advanced capitalist countries and the signs of a global recession - without even mentioning the current lugubrious scientific predictions of disastrous climate change - suggest that normal life will have to change radically. Those who think that new utopias are necessary in this context will find scientific confirmations in this book that prove that they are not wrong.
(MT)
*** Fedechoses… pour le fédéralisme. Presse fédéraliste (Maison de l'Europe, 18 av. Félix Faure, F-69007 Lyon. Internet: http://www.pressefederaliste.eu ). 2009, No. 147, 32 pp. €3. Annual subscription: €15.
This very feisty federalist publication provides a “Focus” into regional integration developing almost everywhere in the world and proposes, “federalism as a response to the challenge of the Israeli Arab conflict”. The spotlight also focuses on the difficult process of decentralisation that prevails in a still Jacobin France. Jean-Pierre Gouzy explains that the claim of the European Council, or at least that of its stable president, to become the economic government, has been stigmatised and presented as a guilty deviation in relation to the federation mentioned in the Schuman Declaration sixty years ago.
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