Description: Through careful examination of the lives of East Germans in the decade after the fall of the Berlin Wall, this book details how a very sudden and very radical system change alters the interweaving of individual agency with institutions and social structures in shaping life-course trajectories.
Review Quotes: "At the beginning of the 1990s many people thought that the economic problems of East Germany would soon be a thing of the past, that Germany would quickly be unified in economic terms. It turned out that the process of economic integration has been much more difficult than expected. This book analyzes the unusual turbulences and unexpected continuities in the transformation of life courses under conditions of sudden system change. It will be a milestone in life course research."--Hans-Peter Blossfeld, Otto-Friedrich-Universität, Bamberg, Germany