Eastern Europe - the vast lands stretching from the eastern Baltic to the Bosporus - has never been a single world. It is a crossroads of empires, peoples and faiths: a place of collision and exchange. While great powers sought to impose order, there flourished warrior republics and despotic pashas, bandits and corsairs, visionary statesmen and ruthless revolutionaries.

The map of Eastern Europe as we know it is remarkably recent, born of treaties, wars and accident. In this sweeping book, Martyn Rady traces the region's history over more than two millennia, from the Roman Empire's collapse in the fifth century CE, through the medieval kingdoms and frontier societies, the rise of the Russian Empire, and the revolutions and wars that forged the modern age. Rich in insight and vivid storytelling, this is an essential new history of a region that has shaped Europe - and continues to influence its future.