Daimler Foreign Policy Forum

From Peoples into Nations: A History of Eastern Europe

Experts agree: Eastern Europe is not a region characterized by “ancient hatreds.” But what is it then? John Connelly says it’s a place in the shadow of empires where people possess particular disturbing knowledge: that in the course of history, nations come and go. Some disappear. Nationalism – human efforts to maintain the coherence of a nation and its culture – appears therefore not as good or evil but as necessity. The question is: how do people from places without this acute knowledge of history’s destructive energies write East Europe’s history?

Generously supported by Daimler-Fonds.