Historia społeczna : metodologia, ewolucja, perspektywy

Żarnowski, Janusz (1932–2019)

doi:978-83-7543-209-1

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Title: Historia społeczna : metodologia, ewolucja, perspektywy

Abstract:

The present book is the fruit of the desire to present to interested humanists, including scholars and students of history, an outline of history of social history, a research topic which in the 1950s–1980s enjoyed the greatest popularity and interest in the world historiography. It was cultivated in research centres that had high prestige and high quality of scientific study, and were opening new horizons for the whole historical science and pawing new methodological and research ways, as well as opening new research fields. Such centres included the Annales group in France and the so-called ‘Bielefeld School’ in West Germany, which published the journal Geschichte und Gesellschaft. From that time on, under the influence of internal crises aggravated by the changes in a general political and civilisation situation and mentality, the importance of these centres of social history has been decreasing, but some of their achievements have been absorbed by various schools of historical studies as the daily bread of their research practice. It was a proper process and it concerned many research lines which attracted attention for a period of time due to their originality and novelty. As befits a historical work, the material presented in the book is arranged in chronological order, and it begins with the search for origins of social history at the turn of the 19 th and 20th century, namely the motives and circumstances accompanying the emergence of a new research field. Then the author presents this sub-discipline of historical sciences, once regarded as a close relative of historical sociology, against the background of the latter, and in the context of ethnology, economy and anthropology. A separate place is devoted to the determination of the position of social history within other fields, areas and sub-disciplines of historical science. In next chapters the author discusses the evolution of research into social history conducted in France, including the Annales group, in West Germany, in particular the Sozialgeschichte and Bielefeld schools, in Great Britain and the USA. Separate chapters are devoted to methodological matters, characteristic at that time especially of social history, namely the problem of mass sources and questions of quantification of historical data and source materials. For the first time ever, these research tools were suggested by French social historians. Next, the author recapitulates the development, criticism and decline of social science. The latter phenomena took place in the 1970s, 1980s and later. He also reflects on the present state of the discipline, analysing the contents of books, journals and scientific conferences in individual countries. In the following part of the book, the author shifts his attention to Polish matters and in two chapters he presents the Polish socio-historical studies in the first years after World War II and during the Stalinisation of the country, then from 1956 till the present time. The balance of the discipline, which is absolutely not closed and is still being enriched, is quite impressive. But it is only now that it begins to pay attention – although in scientific way, independent of politics and propaganda – to such an important and fascinating subject as the society of Poland under the communist rule and of the following years. The order of the day is the question of rapprochement of European countries and maybe the emergence of European society