About the new book list

11/4/2009

The RSS feeds for the new books list is updated every Wednesday and contains a list of books added to the Ellis Library collection for the last six weeks. The titles are grouped by call number classification, and are listed by week and alphabetically by title.

Books for the most recent weeks are currently on the New Books Shelves inside the north entrance of Ellis Library. They can be checked out.

Österreich 1918 und die Folgen : Geschichte, Literatur, Theater und Film = Austria 1918 and the aftermath : history, literature, theater, and film / herausgegeben von Karl Müller und Hans Wagener. (10/7/2009)

10/7/2009

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Call #: DB91.2 .O845 2009

After Hitler, before Stalin : Catholics, communists, and democrats in Slovakia, 1945-1948 / James Ramon Felak. (9/23/2009)

9/23/2009

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Amazon.com

Review

“After Hitler, Before Stalin is the most important English-language contribution to our understanding of the struggle over Slovak Catholics in the fateful period between the end of World War II and the Communist Party's assumption of total power in February of 1948. Slovakia is the ideal laboratory for an investigation of Catholics and politics in early postwar Europe and Felak's careful research illuminates issues that are central for understanding the whole of East-Central Europe.”
—Bradley F. Abrams, Columbia University

Product Description

After Hitler, Before Stalin examines the crucial postwar period in Slovakia, following Nazi occupation and ending with the Communist coup of February1948. Centering his work around the major political role of the Catholic Church and its leaders, James Ramon Felak offers a fascinating study of the interrelationship of Slovak Catholics, Democrats, and Communists. He provides an in-depth examination of Communist policies toward Catholics and their strategies to court Catholic voters, and he chronicles the variety of political stances Catholics maintained during Slovakia's political turmoil.

Felak opens by providing a background on pre-war and wartime Slovak politics, notably the rise of Slovak Catholic nationalism and Slovakia's alignment with Nazi Germany during World War II. He then describes the union formed in the famed “April Agreement” of 1946 between the Democratic Party and Catholics that guaranteed a landslide victory for the Democrats and insured a position for Catholics in the new regime. Felak views other major political events of the period, including: the 1947 Czechoslovak war crimes trial of Father Jozef Tiso; education policy; the treatment of the Hungarian minority; the trumped-up “anti-state conspiracy” movement led by police in the Fall of 1947; and the subsequent Communist putsch.

Through extensive research in Slovak national archives, including those of the Democratic and Communist parties, After Hitler, Before Stalin assembles a comprehensive study of the predominant political forces and events of this tumultuous period and the complex motivations behind them.

About the Author

James Ramon Felak is associate professor of history at the University of Washington. He is the author of At the Price of the Republic: Hlinka's Slovak People's Party, 1929-1938, and coeditor of Nations and Nationalisms in East-Central Europe, 1806-1948.

Call #: DB2828.7 .F45 2009

MU Libraries New Books: History - Austria - Liechtenstein - Hungary - Czechoslovakia

About the new book list

Österreich 1918 und die Folgen : Geschichte, Literatur, Theater und Film = Austria 1918 and the aftermath : history, literature, theater, and film / herausgegeben von Karl Müller und Hans Wagener. (10/7/2009)

After Hitler, before Stalin : Catholics, communists, and democrats in Slovakia, 1945-1948 / James Ramon Felak. (9/23/2009)