Visiting Fellow and Professor Philipp Ther was awarded the prestigious Leipzig Book Prize. He won in the category of non-fiction with his recent monograph "Die neue Ordnung auf dem alten Kontinent. Eine Geschichte des neoliberalen Europa" (The New Order on the Old Continent. A History of Neoliberal Europe). An English translation of the book is in preparation and has been contracted by Princeton University Press.
The prize committee praised the book for convincingly bringing together various historiographical approaches, such as economic, political, and cultural history, but also for including a subjective dimension.
As the committee further writes, Ther traces back the post-1989 neoliberal reforms to the policies of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. "He describes the practice and side-effects of the neo-liberal therapies, applied in the states beyond the Iron Curtain in the nineteen-nineties and early two thousands. In the first place, however, Philipp Ther takes his readers on a journey to Prague, Bratislava, Budapest, and the countryside. In the most illuminating way, the book oscillates between perception and abstraction. Eventually, we gain an exact idea of the political, intellectual and material tectonic shifts that in the past two or three decades have brought about a situation where, under the title of the 'Conflict about Ukraine' we are again confronted with war in Europe. 'Die neue Ordnung auf dem alten Kontinent' accomplishes a very peculiar history of the present: the history of our present. It becomes better understandable after reading this book."
Read more: http://www.dw.de/in-leipzig-a-poet-historian-and-translator-win-big/a-18313089