Subtitle:

How the Polish state was built? A hypothesis of conquest on the Polish historiography of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries

Contributor:

Polska Akademia Nauk. Instytut Historii im. Tadeusza Manteuffla

Publisher:

Instytut Historii PAN

Place of publishing:

Warszawa

Description:

Wydanie I. ; 336 pages ; 25 cm ; Index. ; Summary in English

Abstract:

While a main reference point in the present book is a hypothesis of conquest, it does not mean that other “theories and hypotheses” are being omitted, including those which for a long time were regarded by numerous historians at least as the “only right ones” if not “the only scientific ones”. Thus, besides the hypotheses of conquest, conforming to an event-driven convention (a one-time act), I have also taken into account processual-evolutionary approaches, including Marxist ones, as well as “mixed” concepts – in one way or another combining these opposed approaches. All things considered, this is a book about the frequently visited but at the same time the least illuminated corner of our (Polish) past, mainly due to the scarcity of written sources and their character allowing for various discrepant interpretations. My presentation of concepts of the birth of the Polish state resulting from one or many conquests of intra- or extra-ethnic character occurring in the Polish historical thought I begin with the emergence of the so-called critical historiography, i.e. the second half of the eighteenth century, and finish with the “official” historiography of the Polish People’s Republic. What has happened since that time cannot be regarded as a “closed” period making it possible, broadly speaking, to unemotionally grasp new trends or to present them in a way that would eliminate the subjectivity of the authors. It does not mean, however, that I have totally ignored “our times”. In the closing part of the book I venture to present certain preliminary remarks on historiographical tendencies from the most recent past. The hypothesis of conquest that led to the formation of the Polish state made and still makes a peculiar phantom of our historiography. It was emerging and establishing in the ideology and political thought of the Enlightenment period, and then occurred in various forms in the historiography of the 19th century, but also disappeared almost completely, like during the closing decades of that century, in the interwar period, and in People’s Poland. Neither has it been especially evident in the post-socialist phase, but it seems to be re-emerging from the dark shadows, mainly in the form of internal conquest (revolution, breakthrough), regarded usually as one of the elements of the state-building process.

Detailed Resource Type:

Book

Resource Identifier:

oai:rcin.org.pl:140138 ; 978-83-65880-55-0

Source:

IH PAN, call no. II.14725 ; IH PAN, call no. II.14724 Podr. ; click here to follow the link

Language:

pol

Language of abstract:

eng

Rights:

Creative Commons Attribution BY-ND 4.0 license

Terms of use:

Copyright-protected material. [CC BY-ND 4.0] May be used within the scope specified in Creative Commons Attribution BY-ND 4.0 license, full text available at: ; -

Digitizing institution:

Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences

Original in:

Library of the Institute of History PAS

Access:

Open