ABSTRACT
A construct of historians, East Central Europe is by now accepted as a reasonable starting point for comparative studies, both within the region and with the rest of Europe, or even the world'. To begin with, it must be clear that the usual comparison of the region with the better-researched history and culture of the rest of Europe is not necessarily the only way to analyse the development in this part of the world. Both traditional historians and so-called Marxist-Leninists had sought partout parallels or the lack thereof between the standard development' of countries west of the Elbe and the backward ones' east of it. The adventurous comparison of town planning in Poland and colonial America suggests that much can be gained by an open mind and a functional, rather than territorial approach. Urban studies seem to be ahead in embracing wide-ranging comparative treatment, perhaps, because they have the best defined subject among the social and economic phenomena under study.
