Annotation A history of Jews in Poland-Lithuania in the eighteenth century which argues that this largest Jewish community in the world at that time must be at the center of consideration of modernity in Jewish history.

A major new assessment of the "vanished kingdom" of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth--one which recognizes its achievements before its destruction Richard Butterwick tells the compelling story of the last decades of one of Europe's largest and least understood polities: the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Drawing on the latest research, Butterwick vividly portrays the turbulence the Commonwealth experienced. Far from seeing it as a failed state, he shows the ways in which it overcame the stranglehold of Russia and briefly regained its sovereignty, the crowning success of which took place on 3 May 1791--the passing of the first Constitution of modern Europe.

This book is the most comprehensive account of the history of Roma-Gypsies on the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from the fifteenth through the eighteenth centuries. It leads the reader through the eventful past of a people on the margins of contemporary Europe. Using previously unpublished documents, Lech Mr¢z contributes to a new self-definition of Romani people in contemporary Europe. The author overturns present stereotypes and popular media images of the social status of Roma-Gypsies in Eastern Europe, especially of their relations with state authorities, showing how the position of Roma-Gypsies shifted gradually from respected, wealthy, and partly settled citizens of the early modern times, towards criminalized vagrants of the eighteenth century. Roma-Gypsy Presence in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth will reward those interested in the development of state policies towards ethnic minorities and their influence on popular imageries.

The first detailed study of the history of Poland and its political development during the 18th century.

This volume provides a fresh perspective of the history and legacy of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, as well as the often-disputed memory of it in contemporary Europe. The unions between the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania have fascinated many readers particularly because many solutions that have been implemented in the European Union have been adopted from its Central and Eastern European predecessor. The collection of essays presented in this volume are divided into three parts – the Beginnings of Poland-Lithuania, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Legacy and Memory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth – and represent a selection of the papers delivered at the Third Congress of International Researchers of Polish History which was held in Cracow on 11-14 October 2017. Through their application of different historiographical perspectives and schools of history they offer the reader a fresh take on the Commonwealth’s history and legacy, as well as the memory of it in the countries that are its inheritors, namely Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus and Ukraine. An exploration of one of the biggest countries in Early Modern Europe, this will be of interest to historians, political scientists, cultural anthropologists and other scholars of the history of Central and Eastern Europe in the Early Modern period.