{"product_id":"estonia","title":"Estonia","description":"With only 1.3 million inhabitants, Estonia is one of Europe's least populous nations--yet it boasts one of the continent's fastest growing economies. In the first serious English-language history of this small Baltic state, Neil Taylor charts Estonia's long, arduous journey to its present-day prosperity, through a thousand years of occupation by Danes, Swedes, Germans and Russians. \u003cp\u003eIn the wake of the First World War, out of the heat of a national awakening and the collapse of the Russian and German empires, Estonia was recognized as an independent nation in 1920. This was not to last--the country was tossed between the Soviets and Nazis during the Second World War, then fully integrated into the USSR, bringing on more than half a century of renewed occupation and misery. But hopes of true independence never dimmed and, in 1991, the Republic of Estonia was restored. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis unflinching history includes charming moments of color and levity, from ambassadorial reports on nude bathing and a presidential press conference deliberately held beside a dirty toilet, to the story of a blind pianist, the first foreigner allowed to visit the city of Tartu in the Soviet era.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Taylor, Neil","offers":[{"title":"Good","offer_id":54242877112603,"sku":"mon0000804255","price":15.86,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0958\/4004\/3291\/files\/MV5BMjI2OTEzNDYzMl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNzUzNjA2MDE_._V1_SX300.jpg?v=1792017534","url":"https:\/\/bookalley.com\/products\/estonia","provider":"Book Alley","version":"1.0","type":"link"}