In the years following World War Two the countries of Eastern Europe (Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, the GDR, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Yugoslavia) fell under the rule of Communist parties. In the two decades after the end of the war the societies of this region underwent major state-directed social change. Industry was nationalised and industrial employment expanded dramatically while private ownership of agricultural land was drastically restricted in the interests of collectivization. Attempts were made to integrate previously excluded groups into national life as the experiences of urban and rural living were transformed.

This conference brings together work produced by researchers from North America, as well as both western and eastern Europe that examine this experience. The papers presented address the following themes:

• Projects of the State
• Making the Socialist Factory
• The Experience of Socialist Agricultural Labour
• Patterns of Exclusion and Belonging: Communities under Socialism
• The Private Sphere
• Memories of Early Socialism