Behind the Iron Curtain

This edited volume offers a systematic exploration of the relations between Western and Eastern scientists during the Cold War from the Eastern European perspective using the example of economic history. Introducing famous as well as almost forgotten scholars who attempted to eliminate the Iron Curtain and strove to break through the obstacles against the transfer of scientific ideas, the book challenges the narrative of the non-cooperative nature of scientific work during the Cold War due to socialist scientists’ incapability and disinclination to engage openly in international discussions. The book contributes to a deeper collective understanding of the multiple contemporary ideological and political circumstances that influenced scientific work and individual scientists' careers and explores the options scientists in socialist countries had - and utilized - to develop their research in collaboration with their Western colleagues. Antonie Doležalová is Associate Professor in Economic History at the Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University in Prague and Senior Member at Robinson College in Cambridge. Doležalová focuses on economic history, its historiography, and the history of economic thought in Central Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries. Catherine Albrecht is Professor of History Emerita at Ohio Northern University in Ada, Ohio. She is an expert in the history of economic thought in East Central Europe, having published numerous articles on the intersection of economic development and nationalist competition in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.