The volume entitled "Ideology, Politics & Diplomacy in East Central Europe" and the essays contained therein were intended by the editor to be a gift to Professor Piotr Wandycz, who had recently retired from his position as the Bradford Durfee Professor of History at Yale University. The editor and each of the contributors earned their doctorate degrees from Yale under Wandycz's tutelage and are now presently in academia. Wandycz, of course, is deserving of such a tribute because, as the editor, M.B. Biskupski so eloquently puts it, "Wandycz has striven , with unmatched success, to make the history of East Central Europe... comprehensible to the English-speaking scholarly world." It should also be noted that the editor and each of the contributors are first-rate scholars and, as a result, the field of East Central European history is the richer for their contributions. There is also a foreword by Antony Polonsky detailing the contrbutions and accomplishments of Professor Wandycz.



The essays are organized chronologically beginning in 1860 with a comparison of Czech politics in Bohemia and Czech Politics in Moravia and ending with 1967 with an examination of the so-called "Ulbricht Doctrine."



The first essay, "A Comparison of Czech Politics in Bohemia with Czech Politics in Moravia, 1860-1914" by Bruce Garver tracks the development of party politics in the two regions between 1860-1914 and that development was influenced in part, by the varied levels of industrialization between the two regions. Ultimately development trended towards cooperation between parties in Bohemia with their counterparts in Moravia.



In the essay "The Wartime Relief of Beligium, Serbia and Poland," the editor, M.B. Biskupski contributes a cogent and intrepid analysis of the disparity of relief offered to Belgium on one hand with the relief offered to Poland and Serbia during World War I. Biskupski evaluates a number of roots causes and motivating factors as to why Belgium received the lion share of relief efforts. What emerges from Biskupski's analysis is an amazing review of ideology, geopolitical considerations and Allied grand strategy.



Neal Pease's "This Troublesome Question: The United States and the 'Polish Pograms' of 1918-1919" is a fascinating essay on the reputed "Polish Pograms" in which it was alleged that the Poles were executing a number of Jews and the "Morgenthau commission" sent by the United States to invesitgate. Whether true or not, the effects on the newly created Second Republic were great damage to the reputation of the fledgling republic and the inceasing geopolitical isolation of the fledgling republic.



William Blackwood's essay, "The Socialist Imprint on International Relations in Interwar Europe" is an in-depth view of relations between the various socialist parties of Europe. The net effect of these relations had a significant impact on the signing of the Treaty of Locarno which had offered France security of its borders and recognition of its possession of Alsace-Lorraine. It is also widely accepted, however, that Locarno was also an inviation to Germany to revise its eastern borders.



Steven Bela Vardy's essay, "Hungarian Americans During World War II: Their Role in Defending Hungary's Interests" tracks the difficult position Hungarian Americans were placed in by Hungary's (begrudging) cooperation with Germany during World War II.



Anna Cienciala's essay "The Nazi-Soviet Pact of August 23, 1939: When Did Stalin Decide to Align With Hitler and Was Poland the Culprit" is a quite lengthy piece which provides unimaginable depth to the question posed by the article. Cienciala's work is incredibly detailed and to say that she examined, day by day, the culmination of relations that led to the Nazi-Soviet Nonagression Pact (together with the secret protocal for the partition of Poland) would not be far from the truth.



Douglas Selvage's article "Poland, the GDR and the Ulbricht Doctrine" is a concise analysis of what came to be known as the "Ulbricht Doctrine" and in that analysis shows how that doctrine really represents a compromise of interests between East Germany, Poland and the Soviet Union.



The essays are extensively footnoted and there is also comvenient index.