Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Transnational Moments of Change: Europe 1945, 1968, 1989 | 2004 | Paulina Bren | Buy |
| 2 | Communism Unwrapped: Consumption in Cold War Eastern Europe | 2012 | Paulina Bren | Buy |
These are the two edited anthologies from Paulina Bren, both focused on twentieth-century European history. Transnational Moments of Change: Europe 1945, 1968, 1989 (2004) brings together essays examining three watershed years in European history and how their effects crossed national borders. Communism Unwrapped: Consumption in Cold War Eastern Europe (2012) takes a different angle, looking at how consumer goods and shopping culture functioned behind the Iron Curtain.
Both volumes are academic in nature and aimed at readers with an interest in European history and Cold War studies. Bren co-edited both collections, bringing together contributions from historians across multiple countries and institutions. The essays cover a wide range of topics, from political upheaval to everyday material culture.
Readers who discovered Bren through The Barbizon and want to explore her academic side will find these anthologies give a good sense of her scholarly interests. They are more specialized than her solo non-fiction books but share the same curiosity about how ordinary people experience major historical shifts.