"While the daily news from East Europe has provided many of us with a continuous sense of surprise and uncertainty ever since 1989, Holmes has sat down to write a masterful, as well as daring, synthetic account of what is going on in the region. The reader of this ambitious exercise in real time historiography, including the undergraduate beginner in the emerging subdiscipline of East European ls"transitology,rs" is offered a wealth of country portraits, original typologies, and systematic ls"before-and-afterrs" comparisons. Both in its conceptual and empirical parts, the book is a highly stimulating and insightful companion to any observer of East European history in the making."-Claus Offe, Humboldt University, Berlin.