In Can Europe Work? Germany and the Reconstruction of Postcommunist Societies, eight scholars from the United States and Europe discuss the problems posed for European unity by the collapse of communism and the reemergence of Germany as Europe's strongest state. Among the topics addressed are a comparison of nationalism in Western and Eastern Europe, the intellectual origins of the often antiliberal and antidemocratic East European nationalism, deteriorating popular support for the Polish Roman Catholic Church, a comparative analysis of the German nation-state in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, German economic influence in East Central Europe, the role of Germany in the breakup of Yugoslavia, the causes of recession in Eastern Europe, and a sobering study of Russia's current economic problems. The book is expected to attract a large audience in both North America and Europe among academic specialists on the region as well as those concerned with policy issues arising from the turbulent environment of postcommunist East Central Europe.

IntroductionPART ONE: THE PAST & FUTURE OF NATIONALISM & NATIONAL IDENTITYNationalism in Western and Eastern Europe ComparedThe Role of Nationalism in East European Latecomers to DemocracyThe Polish Roman Catholic Church Unbound: Change of Face or Change of Context?PART TWO: GERMANY: NEW CORE OR OLD PROBLEM?United Germany as the Renewed Center in Europe: Continuity and Change in the German QuestionGerman Economic Penetration in East Central Europe in Historical PerspectivesGermany's Policy Toward the Disintegration of YugoslaviaPART THREE: REFORM IN POSTCOMMUNIST SOCIETIES: TRANSITION OR REGRESSION?Recession in Postcommunist Eastern Europe: Common Causes and OutcomesThe Utopia of Market Society in the Post-Soviet ContextContributorsIndex