Transnational Moments of Change: Europe 1945, 1968, 1989

Differentiating their "transnational" approach to history from "comparative" studies by suggesting that the former seeks commonalities while the latter maintains boundaries by concentrating on difference, Horn (U. of Warwick, UK) and Kenney (history, U. of Colorado at Boulder, US) present 12 papers that explore similarities in European historical developments at three moments of pivotal change: the close of World War II, the revolutions of 1968, and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Specific topics include the politics of the liberated zones of Northern Italy and Southeastern France, the influence of Socialist Realism in Italy, the working-class dimensions of the '68 revolution, student protest across the Iron Curtain, and strategic debates in the 1980s Western peace movement. Annotation c2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Gerd Rainer-Horn is lecturer at the University of Warwick and the author of European Socialists Respond to Fascism: Ideology, Activism and Contingency in the 1930's and co-editor of Left Catholicism: Catholics and Society in Western Europe at the Point of Liberation, 1943-1955. Padraic Kenney is associate professor of history at the University of Colorado, Boulder. His books include Rebuilding Poland: Workers and Communists, 1945-1950 and A Carnival of Revolution: Central Europe, 1989