Purs - Baltic facades : Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania since 1945

This book is intended as a thought-provoking, detailed introduction to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania for those that were once pejoratively called the chattering classes, and is not aimed specifically at the professional historians, political scientists, economists and Baltic specialists in their midst. This book is meant primarily for the bankers, architects, librarians, lawyers, doctors, teachers, clerks, accountants, brand managers and those of a thousand more trades and professions who are interested in the world beyond their block, city, region or state; for those that approach the world with a healthy intellectual curiosity, but are unable or unwilling to commit a great deal of time, energy and resources to exhaustive, in-depth studies. This book is meant for the curious traveller, for example, who is considering or planning a trip to the region and wants to know more than is in a tourist pamphlet; and for the concerned citizen who hears about political and economic events in contemporary Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and yearns for more context than newspapers or, more likely, television segments provide.

Since the book is not intended for academic specialists, I have foregone traditional academic footnoting and referencing. I have opted for endnotes as cues to suggested reading instead of providing laundry lists of such sources at the end of chapters. The books and articles cited may not even agree with the points that I make. Instead they are meant as a starting point for examining any given topic in more detail. For example, I mention Lithuanians and their national and social identity in the later nineteenth and early twentieth century only briefly. I suggest, however, that if the reader finds this an area of particular interest they turn to Tomas Balkeliss The Making of Modern Lithuania. This source, of course, is not theonly one to address the topic, but it is a good place to begin, and from it an eager reader can find other sources. Further, I have only referenced sources in the English language. This is unfair to the bulk of academic work on Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which is primarily in Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian as well as in German, Russian and a smattering of other languages. Nevertheless, the English source base is impressive, and it seems convincing to me that most of the readers for whom this book is intended will remain within it.

Even still, this book may fail the reader for whom it is intended, and if that is the case, the blame lies solely with me. I have tried to weave a kind of narrative that holds up to however the reader will experience Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. If months later the reader notices a news piece on the fervour of Latvian hockey fans, they may understand the hysteria from some of the context provided in this book. Ultimately, I hope that this book provides its readers with a sense of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.