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The Origins of Backwardness in Eastern Europe
Reaching back centuries, this study makes a convincing case for very deep roots of current Eastern European backwardness. Its conclusions are suggestive for comparativists studying other parts of the world, and useful to those who want to understand contemporary Eastern Europe's past. Like the rest of the world except for that unique part of the West which has given us a false model of what was "normal," Eastern Europe developed slowly. The weight of established class relations, geography, lack of technological innovation, and wars kept the area from growing richer. In the nineteenth century the West exerted a powerful influence, but it was political more than economic. Nationalism and the creation of newly independent aspiring nation-states then began to shape national economies, often in unfavorable ways. One of this book's most important lessons is that while economics may limit the freedom of action of political players, it does not determine political outcomes. The authors offer no simple explanations but rather a theoretically complex synthesis that demonstrates the interaction of politics and economics.
From 'Civil Society' to 'Europe'
Drawing on the sociological theory of reflexive modernization and the doctrine of liberal democracy, this book debates the formation of postcommunist constitutionalism. Examination of Poland, in comparison with other postcommunist countries, leads to a new theory of reflexive constitutionalism.
Shock Waves
Feffer provides an incisive historical background to the current political and economic conflicts that are dramatically reshaping daily life in Eastern Europe and offers critical and guardedly hopeful speculation about the future of the region. Feffer draws upon hundreds of interviews he has conducted with the region's policymakers, trade unionists, grassroots activists, and scholars.
The Law of Libraries and Archives
The Law of Libraries and Archives explains legal concepts in plain English so that librarians and archivists will be able to understand the principles that affect them on a daily basis. Issues in the book include contracts, copyright and patent law, fair use, the TEACH Act, trademark law, licensing of databases, information malpractice and professionalism, privacy issues and the PATRIOT Act, employment law, and the basics of starting a non-profit organization.
Power in the Blood
This book is based on a series of episodes from village or small town life in the duchy of WÜrttemberg in southwest Germany between 1580 and 1800, in which state authorities conducted a special investigation into local events. The cases and characters involved include peasants' refusal to celebrate church rituals; a self-proclaimed prophet who encountered an angel in his vineyard; a thirteen-year-old-witch; a paranoid pastor; a murder; and live burial of a village bull.
Entangled Histories of the Balkans - Volume Four
The present volume is the last in the Entangled Balkans series and marks the end of several years of research guided by the transnational, “entangled history” and histoire croisée approaches. The essays in this volume address theoretical and methodological issues of Balkan or Southeast European regional studies—not only questions of scholarly concepts, definitions, and approaches but also the extra-scholarly, ideological, political, and geopolitical motivations that underpin them. These issues are treated more systematically and by a presentation of their historical evolution in various national traditions and schools. Some of the essays deal with the articulation of certain forms of “Balkan heritage” in relation to the geographical spread and especially the cultural definition of the “Balkan area.” Concepts and definitions of the Balkans are thus complemented by (self-)representations that reflect on their cultural foundations.
Armed Memory
The edited volume aims to re-contextualize revolts in early modern Central and Southern Europe (Hungary, Croatia, Czech Lands, Austria, Germany, Italy) by adopting the interdisciplinary and comparative methods of social and cultural history. Instead of structural explanations like the model of state-building versus popular resistance, it wishes to put back the peasants themselves to the historical narratives of revolts. Peasants appear in the book as active agents fighting or bargaining for freedom, which was a practical issue for them. Nonetheless, the language of lord-peasant negotiation was that of religion, just as official punishments used Christian symbols. The approach of revolts as t...
A Marxist Mosaic
Historical materialism as Marx understood this was always an integrated conception or field of research, not one divided into separate disciplines. The essays gathered in this volume are a remarkable example of how this works across a wide range of subjects as diverse as agrarian history, capitalism, Hegel’s influence on Marx, and class struggles in India. They were written over some fifty years of both activism and academic work, embodying Banaji’s lifelong engagement with Marxist theory. His recent papers on merchant capitalism can also be found here, along with a biographical sketch that sets all of his work in context.
Before the Uprising
Examines the specific social, economic, political and intellectual characteristics of totalitarian Hungary, at the critical moment before the 1956 Revolution.
Many Shades of Red
This volume provides a radical and timely corrective to received wisdom about the seemingly inevitable transition from communism to democratic capitalism. Arguing against popular misconceptions that portray collectivized agriculture as an unqualified failure that followed a monolithic Soviet model, the contributors draw upon newly available local sources to illuminate the costs, benefits, successes, and failures of cooperative agriculture. They highlight the wide variety of state policies, local responses, and economic outcomes, as well as the influence of local geography, political structures, and economic institutions in each region. Meurs provides an institutionalist analysis of both the causes and impacts of policy differences, drawing lessons of continuing relevance to the many countries in which agrarian reform remains a controversial issue. Contributions by: Victor Danilov, Carmen Diana Deere, Stanka Dobreva, Veska Kouzhouharova, Imre Kovach, Justin Lin, Mieke Meurs, and Niurka Perez.
