Book excerpt: This book questions the prevalent assumption that ethnicity and nationalist politics had nothing to do with the Cold War and that, far from being 'frozen' until the fall of communism, they remained central to the conflict in Europe. Leading scholars bring their understanding of particular regions to bear on the wider issue of why ethnic explanations were written out of the discourse and whether this was a failure on the part of Western observers. This in turn has led to an overly simple understanding of power flowing downwards, from superpower to nation state and from state to society. Engaging with key thinkers such as Gaddis, Moynihan and Adam Roberts this collection ultimately allows such speculation to be replaced by historical research and bridges the gap between 'high politics' and ethnic concerns.