John Feffer brings to this story a traveller's eye, a rich store of experiences, and a wise perspective. His thoughtful book is a reminder that few nations, anywhere, easily throw off the heritage of tyranny.

Adam Hochschild, author of Spain in our Hearts and King Leopold's Ghost

A breath-taking whirlwind tour through the transformations of eastern Europe over the past 30 years. With its account of the travails of contemporary capitalism, it is also astonishingly relevant for understanding pressing political problems in the United States as well.

David Ost, author of The Defeat of Solidarity: Anger and Politics in Post-Communist Europe

A brisk, vivid and wide-ranging survey of a region in the grip of neoliberalism. As Feffer makes clear, this is hardly just a book about Eastern Europe, as the challenges there now seem to be spreading throughout the world. Feffer's sense of the future evinces both pessimism of the mind and optimism of the will.

Lawrence Weschler, author of Vermeer in Bosnia and Calamities of Exile

John Feffer is our 21st-century Jack London.

Mike Davis, author of Planet of Slums

Both a merciless political history and a compassionate political psychology of central and eastern Europe's post-Cold War transformation.

Miklos Haraszti, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Belarus