Padraic Kenney (PhD, University of Michigan) is Professor of History at Indiana University, where he teaches courses on Eastern European and Polish history as well as on political protest and the experience of communism. His work as a writer and a teacher has been shaped by a desire to understand the dynamics of communist societies, in particular those of Eastern Europe. He has lived and researched in a number of countries, among them Poland, Ukraine, and South Africa. He is the author of many articles and books, including Wroclawskie zadymy (2007); The Burdens of Freedom: Eastern Europe Since 1989 (2006); A Carnival of Revolution: Central Europe, 1989 (2002); and Rebuilding Poland: Workers and Communists, 1945-1950 (1997).