“This beautifully written and engaging book is a veritable intellectual feast. Not only does it bring the rich scholarly tradition of the Polish historiography of ‘backwardness’ and ‘development’ to bear on global discussions of economic inequality; it also offers an opportunity to rethink the ‘in-between’ place of East Central Europe in the global system of accumulation. Filling a major lacuna concerning the historical record of specifically East Central European contributions to one of the most important debates of our time, this book is a must for scholars working on the social histories/historical sociologies of global social change far beyond the west European core.”-József Böröcz, Professor of Sociology, Rutgers University

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