What is new in Polish historiography?
What is new in Polish historiography?

Summary/Abstract: The paper discusses core issues of the Polish Historiography, focusing on main challenges. The author observes a process of its transformation, resulting among other from significant changes in a Polish social reality at the beginning of the 20th century. Main conclusion of this brief analysis is that Polish historiography differs from Western historiographical discussion, being less interdisciplinary and focusing on political history. The author diagnoses also a decreasing role of professional historians in explaining the past. On the other hand, Polish historiographical reflection differs also from former Soviet Bloc countries, with their ethnocentric historiographies avoiding discussion on crucial, yet often uneasy or even painful, issues. This text was first published in German under the title Was gibt es Neues in der polnischen Historiographie zu Beginn des 21 Jahrhunderts? in “Historie Jahrbuch des Zentrum für Historische ForschungBerlin der Polnischen Akademie der Wissenschaften” 2007/2008, vol . 1, pp . 37–56 . Updated version was published in Polish in a journal “Przegląd Humanistyczny” 2010, vol . 5/6, pp . 49–65 with a title “Historiografia polska początków XXI wieku . Próba bilansu” . Polish version is translated for the current supplement of “Klio . Journal of Polish and World History” and that is why it only refers to the events prior 2009 .

• Details
• Contents