This new series teaches students about the most important geographic concepts and shows them how people are affected by and respond to economic, social, and political forces--at both the global and local scales. The authors are educators who have been trained to teach geography at the high school or college levels. This series meets national geography and social science standards. Although Eastern Europe has typically been known to shun ideas of democracy and freedom, the difference between it and Western Europe has become more economic than political in recent years.