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Product Identifiers

PublisherOxford University Press, Incorporated

ISBN-100199827672

ISBN-139780199827671

eBay Product ID (ePID)112128963

Product Key Features

Number of Pages416 Pages

Publication NameCommunism Unwrapped : Consumption in Cold War Eastern Europe

LanguageEnglish

SubjectEurope / Eastern, Political Ideologies / Communism, Post-Communism & Socialism

Publication Year2012

TypeTextbook

Subject AreaPolitical Science, History

AuthorMary Neuburger

FormatTrade Paperback

Dimensions

Item Height1.1 in

Item Weight19.9 Oz

Item Length9.1 in

Item Width6 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceScholarly & Professional

LCCN2012-015112

Reviews"[Bren and Neuburger] provide a valuable and detailed backdrop to a history of places where sausage stands for abundance and bulldozed parmesan symbolises crushed hopes for freedom."--Contemporary European History"The essays are consistently readable and insightful, and the editors' introductions to each section help guide readers along the contours of the book's major themes. Highly recommended."--CHOICE"This rich collection of essays offers a unique look at post-1945 Eastern Europe. Departing from the Cold War narrative of endemic shortages and the gloominess of daily life under communism, the essays highlight the everyday creativity and agency of ordinary people. We follow Eastern Europeans to hard-currency stores and gated communities. We see them cross borders to shop in better-supplied neighboring countries and navigate complex social networks to obtaingoods and favors. Situating these stories in the context of transnational modernity rather than a totalizing party state, the book offers a rare combination of new research and a compelling theoreticalinsight."--Malgorzata Fidelis, University of Illinois at Chicago"Consumerism in Eastern Europe has become a fertile field for exploring the dreams and delusions of state socialist politics, as well as the agency and resourcefulness of its citizens. Bren and Neuburger's pioneering volume brings together a range of rich and surprising case studies from across the whole region, significantly enriching our understanding of Eastern European social history during the Cold War."--Paul Betts, University of Sussex, "The essays are consistently readable and insightful, and the editors' introductions to each section help guide readers along the contours of the book's major themes. Highly recommended." --CHOICE "This rich collection of essays offers a unique look at post-1945 Eastern Europe. Departing from the Cold War narrative of endemic shortages and the gloominess of daily life under communism, the essays highlight the everyday creativity and agency of ordinary people. We follow Eastern Europeans to hard-currency stores and gated communities. We see them cross borders to shop in better-supplied neighboring countries and navigate complex social networks to obtain goods and favors. Situating these stories in the context of transnational modernity rather than a totalizing party state, the book offers a rare combination of new research and a compelling theoretical insight." --Malgorzata Fidelis, University of Illinois at Chicago "Consumerism in Eastern Europe has become a fertile field for exploring the dreams and delusions of state socialist politics, as well as the agency and resourcefulness of its citizens. Bren and Neuburger's pioneering volume brings together a range of rich and surprising case studies from across the whole region, significantly enriching our understanding of Eastern European social history during the Cold War." --Paul Betts, University of Sussex, "This rich collection of essays offers a unique look at post-1945 Eastern Europe. Departing from the Cold War narrative of endemic shortages and the gloominess of daily life under communism, the essays highlight the everyday creativity and agency of ordinary people. We follow Eastern Europeans to hard-currency stores and gated communities. We see them cross borders to shop in better-supplied neighboring countries and navigate complex social networks to obtain goods and favors. Situating these stories in the context of transnational modernity rather than a totalizing party state, the book offers a rare combination of new research and a compelling theoretical insight." --Malgorzata Fidelis, University of Illinois at Chicago "Consumerism in Eastern Europe has become a fertile field for exploring the dreams and delusions of state socialist politics, as well as the agency and resourcefulness of its citizens. Bren and Neuburger's pioneering volume brings together a range of rich and surprising case studies from across the whole region, significantly enriching our understanding of Eastern European social history during the Cold War." --Paul Betts, University of Sussex, "[Bren and Neuburger] provide a valuable and detailed backdrop to a history of places where sausage stands for abundance and bulldozed parmesan symbolises crushed hopes for freedom."--Contemporary European History "The essays are consistently readable and insightful, and the editors' introductions to each section help guide readers along the contours of the book's major themes. Highly recommended."--CHOICE "This rich collection of essays offers a unique look at post-1945 Eastern Europe. Departing from the Cold War narrative of endemic shortages and the gloominess of daily life under communism, the essays highlight the everyday creativity and agency of ordinary people. We follow Eastern Europeans to hard-currency stores and gated communities. We see them cross borders to shop in better-supplied neighboring countries and navigate complex social networks to obtain goods and favors. Situating these stories in the context of transnational modernity rather than a totalizing party state, the book offers a rare combination of new research and a compelling theoretical insight."--Malgorzata Fidelis, University of Illinois at Chicago "Consumerism in Eastern Europe has become a fertile field for exploring the dreams and delusions of state socialist politics, as well as the agency and resourcefulness of its citizens. Bren and Neuburger's pioneering volume brings together a range of rich and surprising case studies from across the whole region, significantly enriching our understanding of Eastern European social history during the Cold War."--Paul Betts, University of Sussex, "[Bren and Neuburger] provide a valuable and detailed backdrop to a history of places where sausage stands for abundance and bulldozed parmesan symbolises crushed hopes for freedom."--Contemporary European History "The essays are consistently readable and insightful, and the editors' introductions to each section help guide readers along the contours of the book's major themes. Highly recommended." --CHOICE "This rich collection of essays offers a unique look at post-1945 Eastern Europe. Departing from the Cold War narrative of endemic shortages and the gloominess of daily life under communism, the essays highlight the everyday creativity and agency of ordinary people. We follow Eastern Europeans to hard-currency stores and gated communities. We see them cross borders to shop in better-supplied neighboring countries and navigate complex social networks to obtain goods and favors. Situating these stories in the context of transnational modernity rather than a totalizing party state, the book offers a rare combination of new research and a compelling theoretical insight." --Malgorzata Fidelis, University of Illinois at Chicago "Consumerism in Eastern Europe has become a fertile field for exploring the dreams and delusions of state socialist politics, as well as the agency and resourcefulness of its citizens. Bren and Neuburger's pioneering volume brings together a range of rich and surprising case studies from across the whole region, significantly enriching our understanding of Eastern European social history during the Cold War." --Paul Betts, University of Sussex, "[Bren and Neuburger] provide a valuable and detailed backdrop to a history of places where sausage stands for abundance and bulldozed parmesan symbolises crushed hopes for freedom."--Contemporary European History"The essays are consistently readable and insightful, and the editors' introductions to each section help guide readers along the contours of the book's major themes. Highly recommended."--CHOICE"This rich collection of essays offers a unique look at post-1945 Eastern Europe. Departing from the Cold War narrative of endemic shortages and the gloominess of daily life under communism, the essays highlight the everyday creativity and agency of ordinary people. We follow Eastern Europeans to hard-currency stores and gated communities. We see them cross borders to shop in better-supplied neighboring countries and navigate complex social networks to obtain goods and favors. Situating these stories in the context of transnational modernity rather than a totalizing party state, the book offers a rare combination of new research and a compelling theoretical insight."--Malgorzata Fidelis, University of Illinois at Chicago"Consumerism in Eastern Europe has become a fertile field for exploring the dreams and delusions of state socialist politics, as well as the agency and resourcefulness of its citizens. Bren and Neuburger's pioneering volume brings together a range of rich and surprising case studies from across the whole region, significantly enriching our understanding of Eastern European social history during the Cold War."--Paul Betts, University of Sussex

Dewey Edition23

IllustratedYes

Dewey Decimal339.4/709409045

Table Of ContentAcknowledgmentsContributorsIntroductionI. Living Large: Introduction1. Tuzex and the Hustler: Living It Up in Czechoslovakia-2. Utopia Gone Terribly Right: Plutonium's "Gated Communities" in the Soviet Union and the United States3. "Knife in the Water": Competitive Consumption in Urbanizing PolandII. Quality Control: Introduction4. The Taste of Smoke: Bulgartabak and the Manufacturing of Cigarettes and Satisfaction5. Risky Business: What Was Really Being Sold in the Department Stores of Socialist Eastern Europe?6. Material Harmony: The Quest for Quality in Socialist Bulgaria, 1960s-1980sIII. Kitchen Talk: Introduction7. Eating Up Yugoslavia: Cookbooks and Consumption in Socialist Yugoslavia8. Grounds for Discontent? Coffee from the Black Market to the Kaffeeklatsch in the GDR9. From Black Caviar to Blackouts: Gender, Consumption, and Lifestyle in Ceausescu's RomaniaIV. To Market, To Market... : Introduction10. The "Socialist Bourse": Alcohol, Reputation, and Gender in Romania's Second Economy during the 1980s11. The Extraordinary Career of Feketev go Ur: Wood Theft, Pig-killing, and Entrepreneurship in Communist Hungary, 1948-195612. Keeping It Close to Home: Resourcefulness and Scarcity in Late Socialist and Post-Socialist PolandV. Constructive Criticism : Introduction13. Kids, Cars, or Cashews?: Debating and Remembering Consumption in Socialist Hungary14. The House that Socialism Built: Reform, Consumption and Inequality in Postwar Yugoslavia15. Shop Around the Bloc: Trader Tourism and its Discontents on the East German-Polish BorderIndex

SynopsisCommunism Unwrapped is a collection of essays that unwraps the complex world of consumption under communism in postwar Eastern Europe, featuring new work by both American and European scholars writing from variety of disciplinary perspectives. The result is a fresh look at everyday life under communism that explores the ways people shopped, ate, drank, smoked, cooked, acquired, exchanged and assessed goods. These phenomena, the editors argue, were central to the way that communism was lived and experienced in its widely varied contexts in the region. Consumption pervaded everyday life far more than most other political and social phenomena. From design, to production, to retail sales and black market exchange, Communism Unwrapped follows communist goods from producer to consumer, tracing their circuitous routes. In the communist world this journey was rife with its own meanings, shaped by the special political and social circumstances of these societies. In examining consumption behind the Iron Curtain, this volume builds on a new field of study. It brings dimension and nuance to our understanding of the communist period and a new perspective to our current analyses of consumerism., Communism Unwrapped reveals the complex world of consumption in Cold War Eastern Europe, exploring the ways people shopped, ate, drank, smoked, cooked, acquired, assessed and exchanged goods. These everyday experiences, the editors and contributors argue, were central to the way that communism was lived in its widely varied contexts in the region. From design, to production, to retail sales and black market exchange, Communism Unwrapped follows communist goods from producer to consumer, tracing their circuitous routes. In the communist world this journey was rife with its own meanings, shaped by the special political and social circumstances of these societies. In examining consumption behind the Iron Curtain, this volume brings dimension and nuance to understandings of the communist period and the history of consumerism., Communism Unwrapped reveals the complex world of consumption in Cold War Eastern Europe, exploring the ways people shopped, ate, drank, smoked, cooked, acquired, assessed and exchanged goods.

LC Classification NumberHX240.7.A6C576 2012