This book focuses on the history of Royal Prussia--the "other Prussia"--which was part of the Polish state from 1454 to 1793. It studies the complex relationship between Germans and Slavs in the Polish-Prussian borderlands, and demonstrates the importance of national and historical myth-making for power politics. Analyzing the rivalry between the multinational, constitutionalist Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and its centralized, dynastic neighbor Brandenburg-Prussia, this study contributes to our understanding of the process of early modern nation-building and the formation of national identity.
Reviews
'This sensitive and intelligent recuperation of one of history's lost causes offers a poignant variation on the standard narrative of European nationalism.' German History
