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The article presents the book "The Second Generation of Democratic Elites in Central and Eastern Europe," recommended for reading. The book brings thirteen papers addressing theoretical issues in the elite studies and discussing elite development in eight countries: Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Slovakia and Slovenia. The second generation of democratic elites is the elite of consolidation (by some called "post-transitional"). Their role has been not to struggle for the new rules of the game, but to employ them in the process of crafting democracy and a market economy. They were elected or nominated to their posts according to the new procedures. They had to face the challenges of more mature democratic politics and market mechanisms: electoral campaigns, class and value conflicts, unemployment, mass social protests, radical re-direction of international political and trade relations and many others. The charisma of communism fighters was gone, together with peoples' joy and their unequivocal support for reforms.