Search results for ""Author Richard Butterwick""

Book SynopsisLithuania is often portrayed as a small nation- state that has survived against the odds of history: together with Estonia and Latvia, it won independence at the end of the First World War, lost it to the Soviet Union in 193940, regained it in 19901, and joined NATO and the EU in 2004, angering the Kremlin. But Lithuania's rich and complex history stretches back much further than these events, and much further than many realise.In the fourteenth century, Europe's last pagan dynasty ruled a vast empire stretching from forests on the Baltic shores to the steppes north of the Black Sea. Forging a remarkable, liberty-based union with the Kingdom of Poland, for 400 years the Grand Duchy of Lithuania blocked Moscow's pretensions to rule all of Rus', particularly Belarus and Ukraine. Yet it was in competition with Poles, and under Russian imperial rule, that the modern ethnic Lithuanian nation emerged in the nineteenth century.This is a lively and accessible history of a fascinating country that was once much larger than it is today; a land where, for centuries, peoples and communitiesincluding Belarusians, Ukrainians, Germans, Poles, Russians, Jews, Karaites and Tatarslived together in concord and discord.

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Book SynopsisA major new assessment of the “vanished kingdom” of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth—one which recognizes its achievements before its destructionTrade Review“This astonishing and brilliant revival of independence and creative energy is the subject of Richard Butterwick’s book . . . [which] goes into the details not only of high politics but of people and processes. . . . Butterwick makes a vivid narrative.”—Neal Ascherson, London Review of Books“A brilliantly constructed and complete synthesis. . . . Different threads combine, interweave and result from one another, giving a rich picture of the reality of the time. . . . Probably the first historical synthesis of this epoch in which the author has followed so closely the political situation in this part of Europe, and at the same time shown that, without this knowledge, it is impossible to understand the internal political activities of a state deprived of sovereignty.”—Anna Grześkowiak-Krwawicz, Polish History Museum“Butterwick offers a very valuable and impressively comprehensive account of the important final decades in the history of the Commonwealth.”—Larry Wolff, Slavonic and East European Review“Butterwick is a good narrator, but he manages to transcend mere storytelling. It is no small feat that he explains the complexities of the Commonwealth and its constituent parts, the changing social and economic landscape as well as the complicated confessional issues without ever being dry.”—Orsolya Szakály, European Review of History“A captivating history of the last decades of one of the largest and yet most unknown state structures in Europe. . . . [Butterwick] is able brilliantly to refute the common notion that the history of the Polish-Lithuanian state in the eighteenth century can only be reduced to its decay.”—Ruth Leiserowitz, Historische Zeitschrift“Richard Butterwick . . . has handled this task perfectly. We have a new, conceptual book revealing to readers the complex history of the Polish-Lithuanian state, or more precisely its final stage, lit up not just by the bright aura of the Age of Enlightenment, but also ablaze with ideas of freedom, equality, democracy and constitutionalism just before the state was extinguished. . . . It is also an excellent guide helping readers understand the underlying reasons for geopolitical processes in the context of Russia’s intervention in the sovereign Ukrainian state.”—Ramunė Šmigelskytė-Stukienė, Lithuanian Historical Studies“Brilliant. . . . This is an archivally-rich book that successfully captures the developing destruction of a still-vibrant polity. An important work indeed not only for those interested in Polish history but also in the Enlightenment as practice.”—Jeremy Black, The Critic“One of the many virtues of Butterwick’s book is that . . . on the basis of deep and up-to-date research, the work will facilitate the teaching of eighteenth-century Poland-Lithuania to Anglophone students. . . . It is written with verve and color. . . . An outstanding achievement.”—Robert Frost FBA, The Middle Ground JournalWinner of the Polish Historical Society’s Pro Historia Polonorum prizeFirst distinction in the competition of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the best foreign-language book promoting the history of PolandWinner of the 2021 Oskar Halecki Polish History Award, sponsored by the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America“Masterly. Butterwick’s authoritative and notably well-written account is a major contribution to Polish and European history. As a study of the high politics of the last six decades of Poland-Lithuania’s independent existence, it would be difficult to better.”—Hamish Scott, FBA, Jesus College, University of Oxford“Both scholarly and entertaining, this enthralling account of the decline and fall of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth is a major contribution to the history of Europe in the eighteenth century.”—Tim Blanning, author of The Pursuit of Glory: Europe 1648–1815“Butterwick has succeeded admirably. . . . This compelling history weaves political, ecclesiastical, and international affairs together, demonstrating how the principles of Enlightenment shaped a reforming state and society as they faced the Partitions.”—Frank E. Sysyn, University of Alberta

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review'The strength of this book lies in the excellent quality of the individual studies and in the diversity of the experiences of the Enlightenment which it offers, stripping away the barriers created by linguistic, political and cultural divisions.'Eighteenth-century Ireland'[…] this is a rich and thought-provoking collection. Butterwick’s hope that he can ‘persuade dix-huitiémistes that study of the peripheries of the Enlightenment yields insights into the movement as a whole’ (p.16) is well founded.'Slavonic and East European ReviewTable of ContentsAcknowledgementsList of abbreviationsRichard Butterwick, Peripheries of the Enlightenment: an introductionSimon Davies, Whither/wither France: Voltaire’s view from FerneyGraham Gargett, French periphery, European centre: eighteenth-century Geneva and its contribution to the EnlightenmentMichael Brown, Was there an Irish Enlightenment? The case of the AnglicansJohn Robertson, Political economy and the ‘feudal system’ in Enlightenment Naples: outline of a problemMarie-Christine Skuncke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau in Swedish eyes around 1760Orsolya Szakály, Enlightened self-interest: the development of an entrepreneurial culture within the Hungarian eliteMartin Fitzpatrick, The view from Mount Pleasant: Enlightenment in late eighteenth-century LiverpoolSimon Burrows, Grub Street revolutionaries: marginal writers at the Enlightenment’s periphery?Ultán Gillen, Varieties of Enlightenment: the Enlightenment and Irish political culture in the age of revolutionsGabriel Sánchez Espinosa, An ilustrado in his province: Jovellanos in AsturiasRichard Butterwick, Between Anti-Enlightenment and enlightened Catholicism: provincial preachers in late eighteenth-century Poland-LithuaniaSimon Dixon, 'Prosveshchenie’: Enlightenment in eighteenth-century RussiaFiona Clark, The Gazeta de Literatura de México and the edge of reason: when is a periphery not a periphery?Lynda Pratt, Tea and national history? Ann Yearsley, John Thelwall and the late eighteenth-century provincial English epicPeter Hanns Reill, The Enlightenment from the German periphery: Johann Herder’s reinterpretation of the EnlightenmentSummariesBibliographyIndex

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