Failure of the Central European Bourgeoisie

This comprehensive study traces the history of over forty royal free towns from the sixteenth-century to 1848 in the territories of what today are Hungary, Slovakia, and Romania. Szelenyi argues that these towns have been a neglected feature of national meta-narratives in Eastern Europe because their dwellers were often German speakers. He calls for a serious re-evaluation of urban development in Eastern Europe, and the need for a new meta-narrative that focuses on the region not through the national-state perspective but instead, through the lenses of the numerous ethnic diasporas.