Integrated Peasant Economy in Central and Eastern Europe

Income integration based on the peasants’ engagement in non-agrarian sectors is a prominent and widespread feature in the history of the European countryside. While listing a multitude of activities outside the narrow scope of farm management aimed at self-consumption, prevailing interpretations emphasize how survival was the goal of peasant economies and societies. The “integrated peasant economy” is a new concept that considers the peasant economy as a comprehensive system of agrarian and non-agrarian activities, disclosing how peasants demonstrate agency, aspirations and the ability to proactively change and improve their economic and social condition. After having been successfully applied to the Alpine and Scandinavian areas, the book tests this innovative concept through a range of case studies on central and eastern European regions comprising Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Ukraine. By enhancing our knowledge on central and eastern Europe and questioning the assumption that these regions were “different”, it helps overcome interpretive simplifications and common places, as well as the underrepresentation of the “eastern half” of Europe in scholarly literature on rural history. That’s why the book represents a refreshing methodological contribution and a new insight into European rural history.