Böcker av Peter (University of California Kenez

The years of 1949-1956 could be described as the gloomiest in modern Hungarian history, as the country's population lived under vicious totalitarian leadership. Eventually, the regime began to disintegrate, leading to the 1956 Hungarian Revolution - a critical moment in the history of the Cold War. But why did this revolution occur in Hungary, rather than any other countries in the Soviet bloc? Before the Uprising examines the specific social, economic, political, and intellectual characteristics of a totalitarian country. Throughout the volume, Peter Kenez questions what the necessary components of totalitarianism are: whether it is a complete state control of the economy, a personality cult of the leader, or a specific type of propaganda organization. By describing the totalitarianism of the past, this volume show what we can learn for the present, and what to expect from the emerging autocracies of the future.

This accessible textbook examines political, social, and cultural developments in the Soviet Union - from the revolution, through the years of the New Economic Policies, and into the Stalinist order and the post-Soviet period. The third edition includes substantial new material, discussing the challenges Russia faces in the era of Putin.

The Coming of the Holocaust aims to help readers understand the circumstances that made the Holocaust possible. Peter Kenez shows that three preconditions had to exist for the genocide to occur: modern anti-Semitism; an extremist group taking control of a powerful modern state; and the context of a major war.

This 2006 book describes in detail the establishment of a Communist regime in Hungary. Peter Kenez describes the methods of Communist conquest of power in one country in Eastern Europe and therefore allows us to better understand the origin of the Cold War.