Long ago nomadic peoples from Asia Minor pushed westward across the Bosphorus in search of better food for their flocks. Later on power-hungry rulers sent their armies across this waterway to plunder the rich European valleys. Thus Eastern Europe today contains a surprising blend of European and Asian cultures.

These countries—Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Rumania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Albania, and Greece—have had constantly changing outlines on the map. Sometimes they have bulged and narrowed in surprising ways, for in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the national boundaries of many small countries were drawn up by foreign diplomats—often working for their own ends. Sometimes people who have been united for hundreds of years by the same religion and culture would suddenly find themselves separated and placed in two or three different nations.

The complexity of Eastern Europe is described and clarified in this book. Emphasis has been placed on the history, culture, geographic features, and products of each country. The illustrations and handsome maps are the work of Thomas R. Funderburk.

From the dust jacket