Book Description
This classic book offers the most comprehensive and up-to-date history of Slovakia, from its establishment on the Danubian Plain to the present. While paying tribute to Slovakia's resilience and struggle for survival, it describes contributions to European civilization in the Middle Ages; the development of Slovak consciousness in response to Magyarization; its struggle for autonomy in Czechoslovakia after the Treaty of Versailles; its resistance, as the first Slovak Republic, to a Nazi-controlled Europe; its reaction to Communism; and the path that led to the creation of the second Slovak Republic. Now fully updated to the present day, the book examines the vagaries of Slovak post-Communist politics that led to Slovakia's membership in NATO and the European Union.


From the Inside Flap
"Kirschbaum has given the Western world the first popular history of Slovakia...This is a rich historical work, diligently researched and compellingly written. An important contribution to the literature on Eastern and Central Europe...." - Library Journal

"A History of Slovakia is a masterpiece of historical narrative with a clear-stated and well-structured argument. It is free from ideological or political bias, and able to fill a painful gap in the modern English-speaking historiography."
--Emilia Hrabovec, University of Vienna

"A History of Slovakia is the most accessible English source of comprehensive information on Slovakia's past. It is stimulating and well suited for readers interested in this fascinating country and for university courses."
-- Martin Votruba, Director, Slovak Studies Program, University of Pittsburgh

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Slovakia's declaration of independence in January 1993 marked the reemergence of a state about which remarkably little is known. Slovakia has struggled throughout most of its history to establish a separate identity, from the time of the Great Moravian Empire in which St. Cyril and St. Methodius initiated the Christianization of the Slavs, to its rule first by the Hungarians and then by the Czechs. When the first Slovak Republic emerged in 1939, Europe was on the brink of war, a fact that has colored the world's attitude to her aspirations for statehood thereafter. Professor Kirschbaum describes the history of the Slovak nation from its arrival on the Danubian Plain and the valleys of the Tatra Mountains to its declaration of independence in 1993. The topics he examines include: the Slovak nation's contributions to European civilization in the Middle Ages; the development of a specifically Slovak consciousness in the nineteenth century in response to Budapest's policy of Magyarization; its struggle for autonomy in the Czech-dominated Czechoslovakia created by the Treaty of Versailles; its efforts, as the Slovak Republic, to face the problems of a Nazi-controlled Europe; and its reaction to the Communist regime in the second half of the twentieth century. The final chapter examines the debate about the future of Slovakia and the events that led to its independence after the fall of Communism in Central Europe.

FROM THE CRITICS

Booknews