The Origins of Backwardness in Eastern Europe: Economics and Politics from the Middle Ages until the Early Twentieth Century - Softcover

Chirot, Daniel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0520076400 ISBN 13: 9780520076402

Publisher: University of California Press, 1991

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author:

Daniel Chirot is Professor of International Studies and of Sociology at the University of Washington.

Review:

"Chirot's volume comprises seven uniformly good essays. . . . A brief review cannot address the volume's abundant detail."--Zachary T. Irwin, "American Political Science Review

About this edition

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0520076400
• ISBN 13: 9780520076402
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272