Studies in Contemporary History

Reconsidering the Cold War historiography’s focus on high politics, conflict and confrontation, this series encourages the development of new research that explores ties and similarities transcending the political divide in Europe. It also welcomes new approaches to the history of Central and East European societies under dictatorships: approaches which shed light on individual and collective agency and show high politics as only one of several factors of change. Research in contemporary history still often mentally maps Europe as divided into a West and an East. This overemphasizes barriers between people who often shared similar values and tastes, practices and technologies, between interrelated social phenomena or just neighboring regions. In a similar way, narratives of Central and Eastern Europe often tend to reflect a simplistic vision centered on the conflict between the “regime” and “society”. This overemphasizes the role of crude domination and hinders understanding of the reproduction, evolution and normalization of European communist regimes up to 1989. We seek contributions that employ approaches from history, especially those which integrate insights gained from neighboring disciplines, such as sociology, anthropology, political science, or cultural and gender studies. Discussions of comparative and transnational perspectives are particularly welcome. The series was formerly known as Warsaw Studies in Contemporary History .

10 publications