Enver Hoxha, one of the most fanatical communist leaders of the twentieth century, ruled Albania for forty years. He was a Stalinist modernizer who sought to pull his country out of its peripheral status through rapid industrialization and diplomatic cunning. Albania transitioned from one ideological alliance to another, breaking first with Tito’s Yugoslavia, then Khrushchev’s USSR and lastly post-Maoist China. Masterfully exploiting rivalries within the communist bloc, Hoxha was able to e...

This textbook offers a survey of the history of Central Europe since 1848, from the ‘Springtime of Nations’, through the world wars and communist period, to NATO and EU membership. With an emphasis on nation-building, it gives the reader a better understanding of not just political history but also of the region’s economic development and of everyday life. The book brings the reader right up to the present, considering contemporary issues such as the impact of the 2015 refugee crisis, migr...

The new world order as it stood after the apparent end of the Cold War and the collapse of the USSR was greeted with enthusiasm and optimism almost everywhere, but especially in the West. Less than a quarter century later that optimism has faded dramatically, with the rise of populism, nationalism, religious extremism and civil discord disrupting political and social norms around the world. This book reveals the extent to which events that began as internal political crises in Europe, the ...