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	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
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Politics & government

IN EUROPE'S SHADOW

Robert D. Kaplan

Two Cold Wars And a Thirty-Year Journey Through Romania And Beyond

A riveting journey through one of Europe’s pivotal frontier countries—and a potent examination of the forces that will determine Europe’s fate in the postmodern age.

Robert Kaplan first visited Romania in the 1970s, when he was a young journalist and the country was a bleak Communist backwater. It was one of the darkest corners of Europe during the Cold War, but few Westerners were paying attention. What ensued was a lifelong obsession with a critical, often overlooked country—a country that, today, is key to understanding the current threat that Russia poses to Europe. In Europe’s Shadow is a vivid blend of memoir, travelogue, journalism, and history, a masterly work thirty years in the making—the story of a journalist coming of age, and a country struggling to do the same. Through the lens of one country, Kaplan examines larger questions of geography, imperialism, the role of fate in international relations, the Cold War, the Holocaust, and more. Here Kaplan illuminates the fusion of the Latin West and the Greek East that created Romania, the country that gave rise to Ion Antonescu, Hitler’s chief foreign accomplice during World War II, and the country that was home to the most brutal strain of Communism under Nicolae Ceau?escu. Romania past and present are rendered in breathtakingly cinematic prose: the ashen faces of citizens waiting in bread lines in Cold War–era Bucharest; the B?r?gan Steppe, laid bare by centuries of foreign invasion; the grim labor camps of the Black Sea Canal; the majestic Gothic church spires of Transylvania and Maramure?. Kaplan finds himself in dialogue with the great thinkers of the past, and with the Romanians of today, the philosophers, priests, and politicians—those who struggle to keep the flame of humanism alive in the era of a resurgent Russia. Upon his return to Romania in 2013 and 2014, Kaplan found the country transformed yet again—now a traveler’s destination shaped by Western tastes, yet still emerging from the long shadows of Hitler and Stalin. In Europe’s Shadow is the story of an ideological and geographic frontier—and the book you must read in order to truly understand the crisis with Russia, and within Europe itself. Robert D. Kaplan is a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security and a contributing editor at "The Atlantic". He was Chief Geopolitical Analyst for Stratfor, a private global intelligence firm, and the author of 15 books on foreign affairs. "Foreign Policy" magazine twice named him one of the world's Top 100 Global Thinkers.

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Book Published 2016-02-02 by Random House

Comments

“A tour de force of cultural and political travel writing in which Romania’s complex past and uncertain present become vivid and newly urgent.”

“A masterly work of important history, analysis, and prophecy about the ancient and modern rise of Romania as a roundabout between Russia and Europe. I learned something new on every page. Robert D. Kaplan is a master.”

A moving book—an illuminating and compassionate guide through the labyrinth of Romania's immensely convoluted and often traumatic past. In spite of the many dark, distressing moments that no one should ignore, the book conveys a sense of hope, promise and continuous renewal.

For an appreciation of contemporary Romanian attitudes Robert Kaplan’s book has no equal. As an outsider yet within, the author offers an analysis of Romania which combines erudition and authority. His sparkling, suggestive reflections, drawing upon history and landscape, capture the DNA of the country and its inhabitants.

Kaplan does not promote Romania, but he has written a journalistic tour de force that will convince readers that it's a fascinating place whose people, past, and current geopolitical dilemma deserve our attention.

Kaplan illuminates the extraordinary journey of the people of Romania, as well as millions of other East Europeans, from the tragic Soviet despotism of the decades after the Second World War, to their more hopeful and democratic future as members of NATO and the European Union in our own time. Kaplan's unique ability to weave together complex histories, religion, memory, and political thought is nearly unmatched in our country today.

In this insightful fusion of history, travelogue, memoir, and contemporary analysis…Kaplan shares travel anecdotes and ruminations on architecture, religion, literature, historical works, and geography… This is a well-written, intriguing, and informative book Read more...

Het Spectrum (Holland), Czarne (Poland), Humanitas (Romania), Social Sciences Academic Press (Mainland China), Marco Polo Press (Taiwan)

Some 35 years ago, Robert D. Kaplan embarked on what this book portrays as an enduring love affair. The object of his affection and fascination is not a person, but a country: Romania. It is an obsession that has led him to plunge into the surrounding Balkans, and farther afield to contemplate Europe in all its historic complexity… [IN EUROPE’S SHADOW is] a haunting yet ultimately optimistic examination of the human condition… Kaplan’s account of the centuries leading up to the most turbulent of all—the 20th—is both sweeping and replete with alluring detail.

- “Robert Kaplan has been a great favorite of mine for years, and IN EUROPE'S SHADOW will join his other books in my library. Kaplan is a very thoughtful and insight-driven historian, who writes clear and compelling prose, but what I like most about him is his political sophistication, very much in evidence in his new book. You will, when you're reading IN EUROPE'S SHADOW, look up and think about what's on the page—a true pleasure for the reader.”

Robert D. Kaplan’s latest non-fiction title, IN EUROPE’S SHADOW has been named one of the Top Ten History Book for Spring 2016 by Publishers Weekly

“Robert D. Kaplan has the remarkable ability to see over the geopolitical horizon, and he now turns his attention to Europe's marchlands—the former "Greater Romania" lying between the Balkans and a resurgent Russia. In a triple journey through books, landscapes, and histories, he tackles the meaning of geography, the influence of intellectuals, and the daffiness—and power—of nationalism. A timely, insightful, and deeply honest book.”

You wouldn’t mistake Robert Kaplan for Bertie Wooster. He radiates a seriousness of purpose. He is a roving geopolitical analyst, which is up there with astrophysicist in the sheer specific gravity of its title. His method is that of a foreign correspondent, firing off dispatches from the South China Sea to North Yemen to the darkest corners of Eastern Europe when it was still Iron Curtain country, and his approach has a Thucydidean texture: a gimlet-eyed realism as gathered by evidence, and guided by an understanding that the knee-jerk of history is self-interest....In Europe’s Shadow is cut from all that cloth, though allowing now, after decades in the field, to let memoir touch his thoughts. Analytical memoir, of course. Read more...