This collection succeeds because its expert authors and editors elucidate the rich variety and the ubiquity of the refugee experience, without eliding its devastating inhumane aspects. Readers of this journal may read it for the experience of eastern Europe in the twentieth century, yet it has something to teach historians of every continent.
Slavic Review
The anthology, which in view of the topicality of the topics and its methodological breadth is a profitable read for those who are particularly interested as well as for teaching, thus marks a promising change of perspective.
H-Soz-Kult (Bloomsbury Translation)
Penned by prominent specialists, these essays offer the most comprehensive account of Europe’s refugee problem from the end of World War One to the decolonization era. They also provide an invaluable point of comparison with the ongoing asylum and humanitarian crisis affecting the European Union.
Daniel Cohen, Rice University, USA
Who can assess Europe today without the catastrophic situation of refugees, hundreds of thousands of whom are knocking on its doors? In this excellent volume, historians Matthew Frank and Jessica Reinisch assemble essays that put this inescapable phenomenon into its complicated and yet sometimes repetitious historical context. Using the framework of a “forty years crisis” framed by the two World Wars, the editors present innovative approaches to Europe’s refugee past, suggesting new ways of looking one of the great upheavals of our time.
Michael R. Marrus, University of Toronto, Canada