Exit into History: A Journey Through the New Eastern Europe

Hans B. Neumann teaches history at Scarborough College, University of
Toronto.

Of Polish-Jewish extraction, Eva Hoffman came to Vancouver as a
teenager. When dramatic changes swept Eastern Europe in the late 1980s,
she was there “to witness history in the making, to catch it in vivo,
on the wing.” This highly readable book is the product of two journeys
through five countries (Poland, then Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania,
and Bulgaria), one completed in 1990, the other in 1991.

Hoffman introduces the reader to the intellectual milieu of Eastern
Europe without ever resorting to oversimplification or ideological
diatribe. She is a keen observer and chronicler, still close enough to
immerse herself in the intellectual debates raging in Eastern Europe and
yet distanced enough, as a result of her years in North America, to
maintain perspective. In her travels, she meets many fascinating
characters, all of them caught up in the momentous changes affecting
their lives. One could not ask for a better guide through the
labyrinthian world of Eastern Europe than Eva Hoffman.