Beyond the divide
Subtitle: entangled histories of Cold War Europe
By: edited by Simo Mikkonen and Pia Koivunen
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Published: 2015
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 335
ISBN-13: 9781782388661; 9781782388678
Subjects: Historiography; Transnationalism; Cold War; Relations; History
Description: "Cold War history has emphasized the division of Europe into two warring camps with separate ideologies and little in common. This volume presents an alternative perspective by suggesting that there were transnational networks bridging the gap and connecting like-minded people on both sides of the divide. Long before the fall of the Berlin Wall, there were institutions, organizations, and individuals who brought people from the East and the West together, joined by shared professions, ideas, and sometimes even through marriage. The volume aims at proving that the post-WWII histories of Western and Eastern Europe were entangled by looking at cases involving France, Denmark, Poland, Romania, Switzerland, and others"--Provided by publisher.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction: Beyond the divide; title: Part I. Political processes and transnational networks; title: Giles Scott-Smith - Opening up political space : informal diplomacy, East-West exchanges, and the Helsinki process; title: Marianne Rostgaard - Challenging old Cold War stereotypes : the case of Danish-Polish youth exchange and the European detente, 1965-75; title: Nicolas Badalassi - Transmitting the "freedom virus" : France, the USSR, and cultural aspects of European security cooperation; title: Matthieu Gillabert - Cultural diplomacy of Switzerland and the challenge of peaceful coexistence, 1956-75; title: Part II. Interplay in the academic contexts; title: Sampsa Kaataja - Expert groups closing the divide : Estonian-Finnish computing cooperation since the 1960s; title: Beatrice Scutaru - French-Romanian academic exchanges in the 1960s; title: Anssi Halmesvirta - Hungary opens toward the West : political preconditions for Finnish-Hungarian cooperation in research and development in the 1960s and 1970s; title: Ioana Popa - "Discrete" intermediaries : transnational activities of the Fondation pour une Entraide Intellectuelle Europeenne; title: Part III. Limitations for transnational networks; title: Vaclav Smidrkal - The image of "real France" : instrumentalization of French culture in the early communist Czechoslovakia; title: Sonja Grossmann - Dealing with "friends" : Soviet friendship societies in Western Europe as a challenge for Western diplomacy; title: Sarah Davies - The Soviet Union encounters Anglia : Britain's Russian Magazine as a medium for cross-border communication; title: Part IV. Along the borderlines; title: Lars Lundgren - Transnational television in Europe : Cold War competition and cooperation; title: Anna Matyska - Transnational spaces between Poland and Finland : the grassroots dismantling of the Iron curtain and their political entanglements; title: Francesca Rolandi - A filter for Western cultural products : the influence of Italian popular culture on Yugoslavia, 1955-65.