Preface -- Part I On the Nature of the Developmental Differentiation of Central Europe: 1 In Defense of the Theory of the Historical Process; 2 The Concept of Central Europe; 3 On the Distinctiveness of Central Europe -- Part II Methodological Assumptions: 4 The Method of Idealization in the Historical Sciences; 5 The Methodological Characterization of the Cascade Effect -- Part III Theoretical Assumptions: 6 The Basic Ideas of Non-Marxian Historical Materialism; 7 Ownership and Revolution in Non-Marxian Historical Materialism - Part IV The Conceptualization of the Distinctiveness of Central Europe: 8 Models of the Source of a Cascade; 9 The Genesis of European Differentiation -- Conclusions -- Appendices: Civilizational Dimensions of Non-Marxian Historical Materialism; An Individual and Two Approaches toward Political Revolution -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- Bibliography -- Name Index -- Subject Index.

The aim of this book is to explain economic dualism in the history of modern Europe. The emergence of the manorial-serf economy in the Bohemia, Poland, and Hungary in the 16th and the 17th centuries was the result of a cumulative impact of various circumstantial factors. The weakness of cities in Central Europe disturbed the social balance – so characteristic for Western-European societies – between burghers and the nobility. The political dominance of the nobility hampered the development of cities and limited the influence of burghers, paving the way to the rise of serfdom and manorial farms. These processes were accompanied by increased demand for agricultural products in Western Europe

Reikšminiai žodžiai: Istorija; Europa; Centrinė Europa; Ekonomika; Istorijos filosofija; Abiejų Tautų Respublika (ATR; Rzeczpospolita Obojga Narodów; Žečpospolita; Sandrauga; Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth); History; Europe; Central Europe; The Economic; The Philosophy of history