A Concise Historical Atlas of Eastern Europe by Dennis P. Hupchick; Harold E. CoxReview by: Martyn RadyThe Slavonic and East European Review, Vol. 77, No. 4 (Oct., 1999), pp. 778-779Published by: the Modern Humanities Research Association and University College London, School ofSlavonic and East European StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4212993 .

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778 SEER, 77, 4, I999

the enormity of his rule has brought Romania under the spotlight of international scrutiny, a scrutiny reflected in the wealth of material tracked down by the compilers. Alongside its intrinsic value in signalling this material, the Bibliography offers alongside a description of the entry a critical appreciation which in some cases can be likened to a mini-review. Many of the entries on history, literature and politics are particularly impressive in this respect and indicate the close familiarity which the authors have, not only with the subject, but also with the relevant discipline. The Introduction is a model of synthesis, accurate and generous in its scope, yet leavened with profound insight in places. Supplemented by three separate indexes of authors, titles and subjects, this Bibliography represents an outstanding contribution to the excellent World Bibliographical Series.

School of Slavonic and East European Studies DENNIS DELETANT

University of London

Hupchick, Dennis P. and Cox, Harold E. A Concise Historical Atlas of Eastern Europe. Macmillan, Basingstoke and London, I996. vii + 120 pp. Maps. Bibliography. Index. /I2.99 (paperback).

THE intention of this new historical atlas is to provide students with an affordable set of maps suitable for introductory courses on East European history. In this respect the atlas fulfils its purpose admirably. It contains fifty full-page maps illustrating the history of the region from the late Roman period to the I99os. Each map is accompanied by an explanatory page of close print. Read together, these pages constitute one of the crispest and most succinct histories of the region yet available. Unlike many other historical atlases, ample space is dedicated to the medieval and early modern periods. It is here, however, that several predictable difficulties arise.

The idea that a polity has defined and exact boundaries within which the power exercised by the centre is equally distributed is an essentially modern one. In the medieval period, in particular, frontiers between areas of jurisdiction were wide and they frequently comprised large tracts of no man's land. Moreover, until the invention of the idea of the sovereign state in the late eighteenth century, relationships of power within and between polities were so complex as to defy two-dimensional representation. Let us take, by example, Map 20 in the present collection which illustrates Eastern Europe in the mid-fourteenth century. On the basis of the prince of Wallachia's recognition of Louis of Hungary's suzerainty, Wallachia is included within the Hungarian kingdom. This gives, however, a misleading picture, for the personal subordination of the prince of Wallachia was not accompanied by any administrative or political reorganization of his land. Regardless of its prince's action, Wallachia continued to fall outside the remit of the Hungarian king's chancellery. Likewise, with respect to Map 24, illustrating the territorial extent of the Ottoman empire in the mid-sixteenth century, the shading of Transylvania in the same green wash as Moldavia, Wallachia and central Hungary conceals the very real differences of control exercized by the Sultan and Ottoman administration. Turkish Hungary was organized into vilayets,

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REVIEWS 779

but none of the other three were. Theferman carried legal weight in Moldavia and Wallachia, but not in Transylvania, and so on. The origin of cartography as a science is intimately bound up with the advent of the modern state. It is, therefore, by its very nature an imprecise tool with which to demarcate relationships of power in earlier periods.

The present reviewer is, nevertheless, impressed with the care and consideration which has accompanied the construction of each of the maps in the present atlas. Only a very few errors are evident. The text accompanying Map 6 on the Vdlkenvanderung asserts that 'the Germanic interlopers' adhered to the Nicene creed; in fact, most were Aryans. Map 9 on Eastern Europe in the ninth century overestimates the geographical size of the Bulgarian empire while not acknowledging the extent of Frankish penetration into Slavonia. Map 36 on the Macedonian question is virtually useless on account of its incorrect drawing of the contemporary Greek border. A further criticism might be made in respect of the introductory maps which quite unnecessarily seek to provide historical justification for the term 'Eastern Europe'. Using a simplistic 'clash of civilizations' model, the authors present the region as distinguished by the cultural 'fault-lines' with which it is intersected: a West European/East European fault, which turns out to be identical to the Catholic/Orthodox division; and a further Islamic fault which conveniently highlights the position of Bosnia. This is cultural reductionism at its most naive. A similar concern to reify their object of enquiry leads the authors to assert the specificity of East Europe's geography. Certainly the Danube basin may be a geographical 'fact', but the 'Polish plain' is not. It is, instead, part of the North European plain and, as such, yields some geopolitical explanation for the vicissitudes of Polish history. Moreover, and as every proverbial English schoolboy knows, the plain extends beyond even continental Europe, for if he had good vision and if the earth was flat, then from the tower of Barnet Church he could glimpse the Urals.

These objections should not, however, detract from what is an excellent, well thought-out and intelligent guide to East European history. The present reviewer will certainly urge his students to buy it, and he trusts that its perusal will speed their apprehension of the different locations of Slovenia, Slovakia and Slavonia.

School of Slavonic and East European Studies MARTYN RADY University of London

Kolinsky, E. (ed.). Social Transformation and the Family in Post-Communist Germany. Anglo-German Foundation for the Study of the Industrial Society. Macmillan, Basingstoke and London, I998. 237 pp. Tables. Notes. Bibliography. Index. ?45.??.

THIS volume is the product of a newly established research group, 'Social Transformation and the Family in Post Communist Germany', which was set up in I994 with funding from the Anglo-German Foundation, the British Council and the ESRC. The book is divided into two parts: 'Families and Family Policy' (four chapters) and 'Social Transformation and Family

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