Mastering the Past / Hinsey

Information

Author:

Ellen Hinsey

Publication Date:

Telos Press
March 2017

Rights Sold

Additional Info

MASTERING THE PAST

Rights Holder: Telos Press
Original Language: English

“Ellen Hinsey’s concise, evocative new book offers flashes of insight into the journey from the joyous days of 1989 to the increasingly tenuous state of democracy today in the loosely defined region understood as Eastern Europe’s “northern tier,” or East Central Europe”
—Berlin Journal

“Anyone interested in understanding current events in Europe needs to read this book. Hinsey writes with clarity, compassion, and insight about the people who are shaping and reshaping Europe and the world. Her voice is resolute, factual, and, believe me, to be trusted. Not to be missed.”
—Peter Fray, former editor-in-chief of the Sydney Morning Herald

“Ellen Hinsey writes with power and passion: this is a formidable feast of research and interpretation. Her book is necessary and timely reading for anyone who wants to understand events in Central and Eastern Europe.”
—John S. Friedman, author and contributor to The Nation

Over the last decade Ellen Hinsey has traveled across Central and Eastern Europe researching a critical shift in the European political landscape: the rise of illiberalism.

A quarter of a century after the changes of 1989—and as former Soviet sphere societies come to terms with their histories—the specters of populism, nationalism, extreme-right parties, and authoritarian rule have returned in force. Through a series of eyewitness reports, Mastering the Past offers an insider’s view of key political events, including the 2012 Russian elections, the Polish presidential plane crash in Smolensk, and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s vision for a new Hungary.

Hinsey explores the darkening hour of European politics with an incisive mind and an eye for detail, recording the urgent danger that illiberalism represents for the new century. Hinsey’s outstanding research and interpretation of the events provide fascinating insights on what is happening in this key corner of the globe, making it well worthy of international attention from the publishing community.

Ellen Hinsey is the author of numerous books of poetry, prose and literary translation. Her work has appeared in such publications such as The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Irish Times and Poetry. A former Berlin Prize Fellow of the American Academy in Berlin and a DAAD Kunstler Program Fellow, she has also been the recipient of Lannan and Rona Jaffe Foundation Awards.

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