While the Cold War governments of Eastern Europe operated within the confines of the Soviet worldview, their peoples confronted the narratives of both East and West. From the Soviet Union and its satellites, they heard of a West dominated by imperialist warmongers and of the glorious future only Communism could bring. A competing discourse emanated from the West, claiming that Eastern Europe was a totalitarian land of captive slaves, powerless in the face of Soviet aggression. In Curtain of Lies, Melissa Feinberg conducts a timely examination into the nature of truth, using the political culture of Eastern Europe during the Cold War as her foundation. Focusing on the period between 1948 and 1956, she looks at how the "truth" of Eastern Europe was delineated by actors on both sides of the Iron Curtain. Feinberg offers a fresh interpretation of the Cold War as a shared political environment, exploring the ways in which ordinary East Europeans interacted with these competing understandings of their homeland. She approaches this by looking at the relationship between the American-sponsored radio stations broadcast across the Iron Curtain and the East European emigres they interviewed as sources on life under Communism. Feinberg's careful analysis reveals that these parties developed mutually reinforced assumptions about the meaning of Communism, helping to create the evidentiary foundation for totalitarian interpretations of Communist rule in Eastern Europe. In bridging the geopolitical and the individual, Curtain of Lies provides a perspective that is both innovative in its methodology and indispensable to its field.

About the Author
Melissa Feinberg is Associate Professor of History at Rutgers University, New Brunswick. She is the author of Elusive Equality: Gender, Citizenship and the Limits of Democracy in Czechoslovakia, 1918-1950.

Reviews
I find Melisa Feinberg's book innovative and original and very important for our contemporary perspective. * Klara Pinerova, East Central Europe *
Melissa Feinberg's Curtain of Lies is a provocative analysis of truth and fear in Eastern Europe during the early Cold War. * Karl Brown, Jahrbucher fur Geschichte Osteuropas *
Feinberg's findings and their engaging, accessible, and well-structured delivery will benefit teachers and students of US history at least as much as those who are interested in Eastern Europe and the Cold War. * Yuliya Komska, Journal of Modern History *
Melissa Feinberg's innovative book may not totally subvert our view of Cold War political culture, but it does force us to rethink the nature of East-West interactions and East Europeans' attitudes towards the communist regimes that ruled them. * Kevin McDermott, Journal of Contemporary History *
Melissa Feinberg has written an important and timely book. * Natalia Kovalyova, Europe-Asia Studies *


Awards
Winner of Winner of the 2017 Blazyca Prize from the British Association of Slavic and East European Studies.



Book Information
ISBN 9780190644611
Author Melissa Feinberg
Format Hardback
Page Count 256
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 476g
Dimensions(mm) 160mm * 236mm * 25mm