A Suburb of Europe : : Nineteenth-Century Polish Approaches to Western Civilization / / Jerzy Jedlicki.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Central European University Press eBook-Package 2013-1998
• VerfasserIn: Jedlicki, Jerzy,
• Place / Publishing House: Budapest ;, New York : : Central European University Press, , [2022]; ©1999
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (336 p.)

In this lively and original book, the distinguished Polish historian Jerzy Jedlicki tells the story of a century-long Polish dispute over the merits and demerits of the Western model of liberal progress and industrial civilization. As in several countries of Europe, also in Poland, intellectuals--conservatives, liberals, and (later) socialists--quarrelled about whether such a model would suit and benefit their nation, or whether it would spell the ruin of its distinctive cultural features. This heated debate revolved around several pairs of opposing ideas: native cultures v. cosmopolitan civilization; natural v. artificial ways of economic development; Christian morals v. capitalist laissez-faire; traditional customs v. mobile society; romanticism v. scientism, and so on. It is these various aspects of the main issue which the author analyzes and links together here. He describes how difficult and painful the process of modernization was in a nation deprived of its political independence and cultural autonomy.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface to the English Edition -- Chronology -- Maps -- PART ONE. Images of the Future from the 1780s to 1863 -- Chapter 1. National Identity and Cosmopolitan Civilization -- Chapter 2. "Natural" or "Artificial" Development -- Chapter 3. The Gospel and Economy -- PART TWO. Ambiguities of Progress from 1864 through the 1880s -- Chapter 4. Vicious Circles -- Chapter 5. Affirmation and Negation -- Chapter 6. Growth and Distribution -- Selected Bibliography -- Index