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Dust jacket complete, unclipped, a little wear loss to top of spine, now in a clear protective sleeve. Original cloth boards with bright gilt titling on spine. No ownership marks. 343 pages clean and tight. This book is one of a series of two-volume collections on man, state, and society in major areas of the world. One of the volumes on each area will be historical; the other will deal with the contemporary period. The area covered in the present volume includes what are today the states of Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Rumania, and Yugoslavia. The time covered is essentially the period between the fall of Constantinople, in 1453, and the beginning of World War II. By the tenth century, the ethnically diverse peoples of Eastern Europe were effectively cut off from Western Europe, and since that time they have lagged behind the West both politically and economically. The states of medieval Eastern Europe were feudal societies, each composed of a monarch, a landowning aristocracy, and the peasantry, which comprised the vast majority of the population. By the sixteenth century, these generally still-feudal states had been incorporated into the empires of the Habsburgs and the Ottomans (and later, the Russians). To a certain extent, the Habsburg emperors and the Turkish sultans introduced modern ideas and encouraged economic development in their empires; but their prime interest lay in the creation of strong central states that could successfully control their subject peoples. Those peoples occasionally rebelled against the imperial authorities-or their local representatives-but widespread revolt did not begin until the message of the French Revolution reached Eastern Europe. Throughout the nineteenth century, Eastern Europe was marked by conflict between the imperial authorities and the various nationalities within their empires. Some concessions were made to the demands of the nationalists (who were generally concerned more with liberty for their peoples than with equality and fraternity). Yet, the conflict eventually led to war and to the final dissolution of the multinational empires. The new nation-states that emerged after World War I suffered from the same weaknesses that had long characterized Eastern Europe: archaic political and economic structures, a peasantry outside modern society, unresponsive or self-serving government elites, and antagonisms among the different nationalities. Those problems were complicated in the 1930's by the Great Depression and the threats of fascism and Communism. They were still unresolved at the time the states were incorporated into the new Soviet empire, during and after World War II. Eastern Europe has thus had a deeply troubled history. It is recounted in this book by means of historical documents and analytical articles-many of theiii translated and published here in English for the first time-and in Professor Fischer-Galati's provocative notes and introductions. All aspects of the region's economic, political, and social life are covered, and ample attention is paid to national differences and peculiarities. The result is an invaluable work for anyone interested in the history -or the present-day problems-of Eastern Europe. Size: Dimensions: 22.9 x 15.2 x 2.5 cm. Seller Inventory # 142751
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Bibliographic Details
Title: Man, State, and Society in East European ...
Publisher: Praeger Publishers, New York
Publication Date: 1970
Binding: Hard Cover
Condition: Very Good
Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
