Contributors to this volume seek to reconsider the heritage of discourses of patriotism and national allegiance in East Central Europe between the sixteenth and the eighteenth centuries. It results from an international research project, "The Intellectual History of Patriotism and the Legacy of Composite States in East Central Europe," which brought together scholars to discuss the problem of patriotism in the light of the many levels of ethnic, cultural and political allegiances characterizing East Central Europe in early modern times. The authors analyze the complex process of the formation, reception and transmission of early modern discourses of collective identity in a regional context. Along these lines, the contributors also seek to reconfigure the geographical focus of scholarship on this topic and integrate the Eastern European contexts into the broader European discussion.