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Informationen zum Autor Andrejs Plakans is Professor Emeritus at the Department of History, Iowa State University. His previous publications include The Latvians: A Short History (1995) and the Historical Dictionary of Latvia, 2nd edition (2008). Klappentext The Baltic region is frequently neglected in broader histories of Europe and its international significance can be obscured by separate treatments of the various Baltic states. With this wide-ranging survey! Andrejs Plakans presents an integrated history of three Baltic peoples - Estonians! Latvians and Lithuanians - and draws out the common threads to show how it has been shaped by their location in a strategically desirable corner of Europe. Subordinated in turn by Baltic German landholders! the Polish nobility and gentry! and then by Russian and Soviet administrators! the three nations have nevertheless kept their distinctive identities - significantly retaining three separate languages in an ethnically diverse region. The book traces the countries' evolution from their ninth-century tribal beginnings to their present status as three thriving and separate nation states! focusing particularly on the region's complex twentieth-century history! which culminated in the eventual re-establishment of national sovereignty after 1991. Zusammenfassung This essential survey traces the history of three Baltic peoples - Estonians! Latvians and Lithuanians - from their origins as tribal societies to their transformation into dominant national populations in separate states. Focusing especially on recent centuries! the book integrates the histories of the recently formed nations to highlight their common features. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1. The peoples of the Eastern Baltic Littoral; 2. The new order, 1200-1500; 3. The new order reconfigured, 1500-1710; 4. Installing hegemony: the Littoral and Tsarist Russia, 1710-1800; 5. Reforming and controlling the Baltic Littoral, 1800-55; 6. Five decades of transformations, 1855-1905; 7. Statehood in troubled times, 1905-40; 8. The return of empires, 1940-91; 9. Reentering Europe: 1991; Suggested readings....
