The University and a Non-Intelligentsia Narrative of the PPR Cover Image

Uniwersytet i nie-inteligencka opowieść o PRL
The University and a Non-Intelligentsia Narrative of the PPR

Author(s): Jakub Szumski
Subject(s): Politics, Sociology
Published by: Instytut Studiów Politycznych PAN
Keywords: PPR; PRL; modernization; modernizacja; democratization; demokratyzacja; egalitarianism; egalitaryzm; social advance; awans społeczny; university; uniwersytet; communism; komunizm; Lodz; Łódź, intellig

Summary/Abstract: This review of Agata Zysiak’s 2016 book Punkty za pochodzenie. Powojenna modernizacja i uniwersytet w robotniczym mieście [Points for Class Origin: Post-War Modernization and the University in a Working-Class City] offers a broad summary of the work and examines it as a general critique of Polish historiography on state socialism. Zysiak’s book opens a discussion on alternatives to national or intelligentsia-based narratives of the past by looking at the story of an unsuccessful experiment to construct a socialist university. However, the author of the review contends that this highly valuable book suffers from a lack of primary-source analysis and omits many postwar experiences.

  • Issue Year: 62/2018
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 251-263
  • Page Count: 13
  • Language: Polish