The Soviet Union has been barred from offering bonds in the U.S. market under the Johnson Debt Default Act because, after the 1917 revolution, the Soviet Union refused to honor its outstanding debts.
Georgia's transition from a former Soviet republic into a non-Soviet one began with the Rose revolution of November 2003, in which the 36-year-old Mikhail Saakashvili and his friends pushed aside the 75-year-old Eduard Shevardnadze.
The range of material is impressive: the chapters deal with the growth of European cities before the industrial revolution, corruption in post-Soviet Russia, privatisation in Eastern Europe, local government in the United States, and more.