{"product_id":"9781783609499","title":"Aftershock: A Journey into Eastern Europe's Broken Dreams","description":"\u003cbr\u003eIn this unique and poignant account of faded dreams, journalist John Feffer returns to Eastern Europe a quarter of a century after the fall of communism. There Feffer tracks down hundreds of people he had interviewed for his earlier book, \u003ci\u003eShock Waves\u003c\/i\u003e, decades before as the Iron Curtain fell. From politicians and scholars to trade unionists and grassroots activists, Feffer finds a common story of optimism dashed. These testimonies that he compiles in \u003ci\u003eAftershock \u003c\/i\u003emake for fascinating, if sometimes disturbing, reading because they are at once very real and very timely.\u003cp\u003eAmong many remarkable characters, Feffer introduces us to a Polish scholar who left academia to become head of personnel at Ikea and a Hungarian politician who turned his back on liberal politics to join the far-right Jobbik party. Feffer finds that years of free-market reforms have failed to deliver prosperity, while corruption and organized crime are rampant, and optimism has given way to bitterness and a newly invigorated nationalism. Yet, through in-depth interviews with the region’s many extraordinary activists, Feffer shows that despite these stiff odds, hope for the region’s future remains alive in many.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Zed Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47037703618800,"sku":"9781783609499","price":95.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781783609499_p0.jpg?v=1763724443","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781783609499","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}