Multicultural Commonwealth

Reviews / Votes

The most systematic and complete study of multiculturalism in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth... certainly of interest to both researchers and students. * Ab Imperio * Multicultural Commonwealth: Poland-Lithuania and Its Afterlives strikes a good balance between detail and overview. . . contributing to a genuine revival of interest in the history of the Commonwealth and all the post-Polish-Lithuanian states. * EuropeNow * A major contribution to the field of Central and East European studies-indeed, to European studies more broadly, as it helps explain the conflicts that persist in the former Commonwealth lands and brings their shared history to light. One hopes it will be read widely as well as translated into the languages of the former Commonwealth. * English Historical Review * This broad-ranging and pathbreaking book, made up of contributions from leading scholars of the different national and religious groups that made up the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, seeks to describe in a critical manner how these groups coexisted in the more than two centuries from the creation of this state until its partition by Russia, Austria, and Prussia at the end of the eighteenth century. It then analyzes the way this diversity has persisted until the present day and how the Commonwealth is remembered today in the countries that have emerged on its former territory. It is essential reading for all those interested in the modern history of Europe and for those who seek to understand the conflicts that still affect the lands of the former Commonwealth. -- Antony Polonsky, professor emeritus of Holocaust studies, Brandeis University, and chief historian, Global Education Outreach Project, Museum of Polish Jews in Warsaw The main virtue of this volume is the successful collaboration of scholars from Germany, the United Kingdom, Lithuania, Poland, and the United States from the disciplines of art history, history, literature, and sociology; they add new and often unconventional perspectives to our understanding of the region's early modern past and make it accessible to scholars who are not outright experts of this period. * H-Soz-Kult *