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This book surveys Poland's move from being a post-feudal, backward, peripheral country to being a modern, capitalist, European state: from the partition of the commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania to the abolishment of 'second serfdom'; late industrialization to state socialism; post-partition fragmentation to post-Second World War westward dislocation; and from the 'Solidarnosc' movement to accession into the European Union.
Could Poland really be considered an 'underdeveloped' nation throughout the last 200 years? What factors contributed to its 'backwardness'? Has Poland yet managed to catch up with the West? This book, the first overview of the modern economic history of Poland to be published in English, addresses these and many other questions crucial for developing our understanding of the economic history of modern Central-Eastern Europe. The economic development of Poland is analyzed through data and statistics, as well as through analysis of the ideas that paved theway for the politics of economic and social modernization.
List of contents
Chapter 1: Introduction: From the "Little Divergence" to Successful EU Integration: Toward Economic History of Modern Poland.- Chapter 2: The View from Afar: The Polish Economy between the Golden Age and the Partitions.- Chapter 3: The Age of Enlightenment Reforms (1772-1795): Economy and Politics in the Late Eighteenth Century.- Chapter 4: Between the Consolidation from Above and the Fragmentation of the State (1795-1830).- Chapter 5: On the Peripheries of the Modern Western World: Delayed Social Reforms and Unfinished Industrial Revolution (1830-1870).- Chapter 6: The Dawn of Modern Economic Growth (1870-1914).- Chapter 7: The Window of Opportunity: Polish Lands during the Great War (1914-1921).- Chapter 8: A Moment of Independence: Reconstruction and Economic Development of the Second Republic of Poland (1918/21-1939).- Chapter 9: Under the Nazi and Soviet rule: Polish lands during World War II (1939-1945).- Chapter 10: Communist Modernization?: Economic Development of Poland between 1945 and 1989.- Chapter 11: In Pursuit of the Western World: Poland between the Transition and the EU Accession (1989-2004).- Chapter 12: Conclusion. Two Centuries of Catching-up to the West.
About the author
Piotr Koryś teaches economic history at the Faculty of Economic Science at the University of Warsaw, Poland. He also holds the position of Research Fellow at the same institution. He spent the academic year 2016-2017 as Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences, Vienna, Austria, wherein he worked on this book. His research interests focus on both quantitative and qualitative modern economic histories of Poland and Central Eastern Europe.
Summary
This book surveys Poland’s move from being a post-feudal, backward, peripheral country to being a modern, capitalist, European state: from the partition of the commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania to the abolishment of ‘second serfdom’; late industrialization to state socialism; post-partition fragmentation to post-Second World War westward dislocation; and from the ‘Solidarność’ movement to accession into the European Union.
Could Poland really be considered an ‘underdeveloped’ nation throughout the last 200 years? What factors contributed to its ‘backwardness’? Has Poland yet managed to catch up with the West? This book, the first overview of the modern economic history of Poland to be published in English, addresses these and many other questions crucial for developing our understanding of the economic history of modern Central-Eastern Europe. The economic development of Poland is analyzed through data and statistics, as well as through analysis of the ideas that paved theway for the politics of economic and social modernization.
