Napoleon and the Szlachta (Hardcover)

This is a local study of elite society in the Lublin region of Poland during the early nineteenth century. Blackburn focuses primarily on the newly available estate records of prominent regional families and examines the effects of Napoleonic reforms on their traditional social and economic positions. He argues that Polish nobles allied themselves with Napoleonic forces in order to reassert the nobility as the dominant stratum in early-nineteenth century Polish society.

In a work that will prove valuable to students and specialists in the field of Polish and European studies, Blackburn examines these actions as well as the results -- expected and unexpected -- that the alliance with Napoleon brought about in Poland.