We are pleased to invite you to the book presentation "From Citizens to Subjects: City, State, and the Enlightenment in Poland, Ukraine and Belarus." by Dr Curtis Murphy, Assistant Professor at School of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Was eastern Europe backwards and regressive before the modern era? 

How did Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, and Lithuania experience Russian imperial rule?

Why did the visions of Enlightenment-era reformers fail to bring prosperity and progress to eastern Europe?

Get the answers from the author...

From Citizens to Subjects challenges the common assertion in historiography that Enlightenment-era centralization and rationalization brought progress and prosperity to all European states, arguing instead that centralization failed to improve the socio-economic position of urban residents in the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth over a 100-year period. Murphy examines the government of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the several imperial administrations that replaced it after the Partitions, comparing and contrasting their relationships with local citizenry, minority communities, and nobles who enjoyed considerable autonomy in their management of the cities of present-day Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus.