Free to Hate : The Rise of the Right in Post-Communist Eastern Europe

Combining first-hand reporting, original documentation, and political analysis, Free to Hate is the first major work in English to investigate the rise of the ultra-nationalist and radical right-wing movements that have been sweeping Central and Eastern Europe since 1989.

In this powerful volume, Paul Hockenos provides an account of the emergence and contemporary relevance of far right movements in countries including Germany, Hungary, Romania and Poland.

He also discusses neo-Nazi youth subculture, anti-Semitism, racism, minority issues and the revision of history in post-communist states.

Free to Hate includes material based on interviews with several leading ultra-right figures.

The book illustrates that explicitly undemocratic nationalist movements make up part of the political landscape in every post-communist state.

Unlike the conservatives of Western Europe, they subscribe to reactionary notions of ethnic specificity, national destiny and organic society.

Violent conflicts in the former Yugoslavia are the most spectacular evidence of this threat to a peaceful post-Cold War order in Europe. Free to Hate explodes the myth that Eastern Europeans have unaminously adopted the values of modern democracy and the free market.

In addition the volume challenges the conventional notions of "right" and "left", illustrating how they become twisted and tangled in the context of Eastern Europe.