WAS THERE EVER A POLISH PEASANT? HISTORICAL IMAGINATION AND THE PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF POLAND
WAS THERE EVER A POLISH PEASANT? HISTORICAL IMAGINATION AND THE PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF POLAND

Summary/Abstract: This essay uses five new Polish-language books popularising the ‘people’s’ history perspective as a jumping-off point to discuss distortions in the historical imagination. At the centre is the issue of the peasantry. In some national mythologies, the peas- ants or the ‘people’ serve as the heart of the nation. In the Polish case, this has been the role of the nobility or szlachta and as a result the peasants are often forgotten or skipped over in popular historical narratives. These new books rep- resent a sea change in historical imagination, not for the academy, but for the broader public.

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