book surveys Poland's move from being a postfeudal, 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 postpartition fragmentation to postSecond World War westward dislocation and from the 'Solidarnośc' movement to accession into the European Union.
Could Poland really be considered an 'underdeveloped' nation throughout the lastyears 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 CentralEastern Europe.
The economic development of Poland is analyzed through data and statistics, as well as through analysis of the ideas that paved the way for the politics of economic and social modernization.
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