This first case study of how the East European peasantry was drawn into national politics focuses on the Ukrainians of Galicia (1772–1914). On the basis of first-hand testimony by peasants and rural notables, it demonstrates that the peasants' political consciousness was forged by serfdom, reforms initiated by the state, and the penetration of a money economy. This book breaks new ground on related issues, including the connection between class and national consciouness, the reasons for a sharp exacerbation of the peasantry's antagonism toward Jews, the new role of generational differences in the village, and the place of rural women in the national movement.
