Since the 'migration crisis' of 2016, long-simmering tensions between the Western members of the European Union and its 'new' Eastern members – Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary – have proven to be fertile ground for rebellion against liberal values and policies.

In this startling and original book Ivan Kalmar argues that Central European illiberalism is a misguided response to the devastating effects of global neoliberalism, which arose from the area's brutal transition to capitalism in the 1990s.

Kalmar argues that dismissive attitudes towards 'Eastern Europeans' are a form of racism and explores the close relation between racism towards Central Europeans and racism by Central Europeans: a people white but not quite.