Wadowice. A Case Study

Konrad Meus presented his research. In his book "Wadowice 1772-1914. Studium przypadku miasta galicyjskiego" (Wadowice 1772-1914. An Example of a Galician City) Konrad Meus seeks to show the social and economic changes in the nineteenth century that transformed the insignificant town of Wadowice into an important urban center in Galicia (the process of urban growth).

The book analyzes the processes that affected the development of the city, its "civilizational discovery" and "discovery of  modernity." The author focuses mainly on communication capabilities, administrative reforms, social mobility in local terms, educational queries and economic relations. A case study with a comparative analysis, ​​the monograph succeeds in creating a complete image of the city and compares the scale of the social and economic transformation in Wadowice to other cities and towns in Galicia, especially in its eastern part. Accordingly, the book describes and analyzes the urbanization processes in the overall context of Galicia.

In the presentation of his book, Konrad Meus was searching for the answer to the question: Do the cities of Galicia have a shared or parallel history? The presentation was also addressed the following:

• The state of studying the history of Galician cities (Western and Eastern Galicia).
• The history of Galician cities – areas of scholarly research.
• Sources of the history of Galician cities (in Austria, Poland, and Ukraine).
• Classification of Galician cities according to the criteria adopted by Polish and Ukrainian researchers.
• Using case studies as a method for researching Galician and European cities.

The monograph "Wadowice 1772–1914. Studium przypadku miasta galicyjskiego" launches a series called Studia Galicyjskie (Galician Studies), which will be published by Księgarnia Akademicka (Academic Bookshop) in Krakow. The purpose of the series is to publish literature on the history of Austrian Galicia.