Leon Marc gives the reader the big picture of Eastern Europe--its political, economic, social and cultural history, the nature of changes there and of the issues at stake in the political and economic transition--while putting the fall of the Berlin Wall and the EU enlargement into a broader perspective of general European history. Three key strands of Eastern Europe--Central Europe, Eastern Europe proper, and Southeast Europe--are identified and the Germanic, Byzantine, and Ottoman influences on the region are examined. What's So Eastern About Eastern Europe? is written in an accessible, non-academic way, addressing the stereotypes about the region and their roots and explaining why the notion of Eastern Europe is now obsolete and misleading. It gives an Eastern European's perspective, and is informed by the author's own personal experience of the changes that brought the Wall down.