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Goodbye, Eastern Europe
- An Intimate History of a Divided Land
- Narrated by: Jacob Mikanowski
- Length: 13 hrs and 5 mins
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Goodbye, Eastern Europe
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Summary
In light of Russia's aggressive 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Goodbye, Eastern Europe is a crucial, elucidative listen, a sweeping epic chronicling a thousand years of strife, war, and bloodshed, from pre-Christianity to the fall of communism—illuminating the remarkable cultural significance and richness of a place perpetually lost to the margins of history.
Eastern Europe, the moniker, has gone out of fashion since the fall of the Soviet Union. Ask someone now, and they might tell you that Estonia is in the Baltics, or Scandinavia, that Slovakia is in Central Europe and Croatia is in the Eastern Adriatic or the Balkans. In fact, Eastern Europe is a place that barely exists at all, except in cultural memory. Yet it remains a powerful marker of identity for many, with a fragmented and wide history, defined by texts, myths, and memories of centuries of hardship and suffering.
Goodbye, Eastern Europe is a masterful narrative about a place that has survived the brink of being forgotten. Beginning with long-lost accounts of early pagan life, Mikanowski offers a kaleidoscopic tour recounting the rise and fall of the great empires—Ottoman, Hapsburg, and Russian—the dawn of the modern era, the ravages of fascism and communism, as well as capitalism, the birth of the modern nation-state, and more.
A student of literature, history, and the ghosts of his own family’s past, Mikanowski paints a magisterial portrait of a place united by diversity and eclecticism, and a people with the shared story of being the dominated rather than the dominating.
The result is a loving and ebullient celebration of the distinctive and vibrant cultures that stubbornly persisted at the margins of Western Europe, and a powerful corrective that re-centers our understanding of how the modern western world took shape.
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What listeners say about Goodbye, Eastern Europe
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 28-10-24
Wide-ranging scholarly exploration of the history of East Germany
The book is excellent but the reading is almost unlistenable. I gave up and reverted to the physical book!
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mrs N
- 06-08-24
Not good as an audio book
Very well written but impossible to follow the audio presentation of this book. A wasted credit.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- William
- 25-04-24
Wonderful book, poor reading
Still in the middle of listening, finding the book a delight. Few writers on Central Europe have such an intimate familiarity with the diverse and complex topic combined with an ability to write with clarity and style. It is let down by the author's limited reading skills. A professional narrator would make this work into a treasure
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 30-09-23
Great book, poor audio
I enjoyed the paper copy of this wonderful book. well researched and written in an approachable and entertaining way. Bought the audiobook to listen on a car journey and was deeply disappointed by the quality of the recording. The prosody is all wrong: robotic chunking across syllables and sentences makes it impossible to listen to it. Don't bother buying the audiobook version, go to paper copy and enjoy it. fantastic overview of Eastern European culture and history unlike any other book I've read. shame that the audio is so poor.
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1 person found this helpful