Poland continues to be a puzzle for the West, partly because its history remains unfamiliar. Recently, however, the country has produced a number of excellent historians whose work is highly esteemed by specialists but has not yet penetrated to the general reader. The present collection of studies by thirteen of Poland's leading historians will acquaint the layman with the basic issues of Poland's historical evolution, and offer specialists radical reinterpretations of some of those issues. It is intended both as an overview of recent trends in Polish historiography and as a summary of Polish history from its origins to the mid-nineteenth century. Historically, Poland represented the great exception to the emergence of centralized bureaucracy in Europe. The Polish Commonwealth became a fully elective monarchy which extended the franchise and citizenship rights to almost 10 per cent of its population, thereby making the state a unique example of gentry democracy. The nobility played a role in Polish history unlike that of any comparable class everywhere in Europe, and this unique phenomenon serves as a thread unifying the various themes in these studies of a 'republic of nobles.' -- from dust jacket.

The first articles in this volume focus on sources for the history of Baltic commerce and the evaluation of their data on prices. In most cases, though, surviving data is hardly adequate for any extensive quantitative analysis of Polish economic history, and many of these articles endeavour in different ways to use comparitive approaches to help overcome this lack of substantial statistical base - hence the set of studies on the economy of travelling and the observations of travellers. Professor Maçzak then turns to the structures of power in Poland and elsewhere in late renaissance Europe, looking in particular at informal power relationships and patterns of patronage. In terms of the Polish-Lithunaian state, he would hold that centralized government was already critically weakened in the late 15th century, and the 16th century saw the creation of a new power structure, based on local self-government, and dominated by the nobility.

Although the Middle Ages saw brilliant achievements in the diverse nations of East Central Europe, this period has been almost totally neglected in Western historical scholarship. East Central Europe in the Middle Ages provides a much-needed overview of the history of the region from the time when the present nationalities established their state structures and adopted Christianity up to the Ottoman conquest. Jean Sedlar’s excellent synthesis clarifies what was going on in Europe between the Elbe and the Ukraine during the Middle Ages, making available for the first time in a single volume information necessary to a fuller understanding of the early history of present-day Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, and the former Yugoslavia. Sedlar writes clearly and fluently, drawing upon publications in numerous languages to craft a masterful study that is accessible and valuable to the general reader and the expert alike. The book is organized thematically; within this framework Sedlar has sought to integrate nationalities and to draw comparisons. Topics covered include early migrations, state formation, monarchies, classes (nobles, landholders, peasants, herders, serfs, and slaves), towns, religion, war, governments, laws and justice, commerce and money, foreign affairs, ethnicity and nationalism, languages and literature, and education and literacy. After the Middle Ages these nations were subsumed by the Ottoman, Habsburg, Russian, and Prussian-German empires. This loss of independence means that their history prior to foreign conquest has acquired exceptional importance in today’s national consciousness, and the medieval period remains a major point of reference and a source of national pride and ethnic identity. This book is a substantial and timely contribution to our knowledge of the history of East Central Europe.

This bibliographical guide contains 10,000 references to the economic and social history of 30 European countries during the period 1700-1939. More than 3000 periodicals have been consulted to obtain references, as well as books, edited collections and conference proceedings. The information is listed in categories such as industry, agriculture, finance, migration, labour conditions, urban communities and organizations. Full publication details are included, so that references may be located easily.

This new edition of Norman Davies's classic study of the history of Poland has been revised and fully updated with two new chapters to bring the story to the end of the twentieth century. The writing of Polish history, like Poland itself, has frequently fallen prey to interested parties. Professor Norman Davies adopts a sceptical stance towards all existing interpretations and attempts to bring a strong dose of common sense to his theme. He presents the most comprehensive survey in English of this frequently maligned and usually misunderstood country.

The subject of this volume is the social and political history of East-Central Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries, with particular emphasis on Polish society in the interwar period (1918-1939) and the role of the intelligentsia. These articles make available the results of work otherwise published only in the author's books in Polish. The first part deals with key themes in the history of the last two centuries: nationalism and the nation state, the role of culture in the recovery of Polish independence, the Versailles system, and the growth of authoritarianism and fascism. The second part focuses on the history of Polish society in the 20th century, highlighting the extraordinary importance of the intelligentsia in modern Poland. Two articles also discuss the impact of new technologies and media in interwar Poland.