Recent dramatic changes in eastern Europe, and its moves towards closer integration with the west, have drawn increasing international attention towards the continent's northern periphery - the Baltic, Europe's 'other inland sea', and its neighbouring states. Will the Scandinavian countries act in unison in their relationship with the European Union, or will regional and national interest divide them, as often before?

How will the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia face up to the challenge of renewed independence? What role will Russia play on her northwestern doorstep?

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David Kirby offers a historical perspective on these and other contemporary questions in this eagerly awaited sequel to his earlier survey of Northern Europe in the Early Modern Period, 1492-1772.

He gives an analytical account - from the Napoleonic Wars to the collapse of the Soviet Union - of the major events that have shaped the nations on Europe's northern edge; and examines in detail the ways in which their peoples have responded to the immense social, economic, religious and political changes of the last two centuries.

A number of core concerns run through the entire book. They include: rural society; social welfare; religious and secular activism; and, above all, the many facets of national identity, from the early efforts of German-speaking clergymen to improve the status of the Estonian language, and hence raise the self-esteem of the recently emancipated peasantry, to the 'singing revolution' of the late 1980s.