Multicultural Commonwealth

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.

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.