Description
Book SynopsisSince the ‘migration crisis’ of 2016, long-simmering tensions between the Western members of the European Union and its ‘new’ Eastern members – Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary – have proven to be fertile ground for rebellion against liberal values and policies. In this startling and original book Ivan Kalmar argues that Central European illiberalism is a misguided response to the devastating effects of global neoliberalism, which arose from the area’s brutal transition to capitalism in the 1990s. Kalmar argues that dismissive attitudes towards ‘Eastern Europeans’ are a form of racism and explores the close relation between racism towards Central Europeans and racism by Central Europeans: a people white but not quite.
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Race, Illiberalism, Central Europe 1. How Eastern Europeans Became Less White 2. How Central Europeans Became Eastern European 3. How Central Europeans Became Central European (Time and Time Again) 4. Central Europe: Half-Truths and Facts 5. The Last of the White Men: Central Europe’s White Innocence 6. ‘Have Eastern Europeans No Shame?’ Anti-Semitism, Racism, and Homophobia in Central Europe 7. Imitators Spurned: Why the West Needs Central Europe to Stay in its Eastern European Place 8. ‘We Will Not Be a Colony!’ 9. Slavia Prague v. Glasgow Rangers: Lessons from a Football Match Conclusion: When the Migrants Come Postscript: Confessions of a Canadian Central European
