nce upon a time there
was a region of Europe
united not so much by
language or even history
but by something more

elusive-by hard-to-de-fine common sensibilities and affinities. What is referred to ever more longingly to- day as Central Europe has in reality always been a crazy quilt of nationalities inhabiting countries wedged between the vastness of Mother Russia and the paternal rigor of Germany. Yet, because many of these countries were for centuries under Aus- trian tutelage, their pe...