Includes bibliographical references.

Preliminary Material -- From Recognition to Restoration: Latvia’s History as a Nation-State / David J. Smith , David J. Galbreath and Geoffrey Swain -- Celebrating Origins: Reflections on Latvia’s Ninetieth Birthday / Andrejs Plakans -- Inter-war Multiculturalism Revisited: Cultural Autonomy in 1920s Latvia / David J. Smith -- Forgotten Voices: Reflections on Latvia during World War Two / Geoffrey Swain -- The Deportation of March 25, 1949 in Latgale: Oral History Sources and Archival Documents / Irēna Saleniece -- The Strange Death of Latvian National Communism / William D. Prigge -- Latvia’s 90th Anniversary: between Partocracy and a Misconstrued Model of Liberal Economy / Veiko Spolitis -- Nation in the Making? The Social Integration Process in Latvia since 1991 / Marina Germane -- The Bronze Man and the Homeless Man: Performance Art in Latvia from Perestroika to Post-Soviet / Amy Bryzgel -- Between a ‘Rock’ and a ‘Hard Place’: Baltic Foreign Policy after Enlargement / David J. Galbreath.

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Taking its cue from the 90th anniversary commemorations of November 2008, this work explores the relationship between state and nationhood during the three phases to date in Latvia’s existence as a territorial entity: the sovereign statehood of 1918-1940; the Soviet and Nazi occupations of 1940-1944 and the ensuing half-century within the USSR; and the post-1991 period, which has seen the restoration of independence on the basis of legal continuity from the inter-war period and – latterly – accession to the European Union. The aim in relation to all three eras is to go beyond the often essentialising contours of Cold War and post-Cold War debates and reveal the underlying complexities and ambiguities of political and social development.