Leszczyński zaryzykował syntezę historiograficzną – proludową, antyelitarną, daleką od „polityki historycznej”

• Authors: Marcin Kula

Title variants

EN

Leszczyński Ventured a Historiographical Synthesis: Pro-People, Anti-Elite, and Far from “Historical Policy”

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

PL

Adam Leszczyński’s book Ludowa historia Polski. Historia wyzysku i oporu. Mitologia panowania (2020) [A People’s History of Poland: A Story of Exploitation and Resistance – the Mythology of Ruling] contains a historiosophical vision and covers the entire history of Poland in a manner that has not been seen in academic Polish historiography for years. Leszczyński focuses on analyzing the history of the popular classes. He describes this peasant nation and its work, status, and living conditions, along with the poor state of the countryside; he writes of the humiliating treatment of the peasants in the interwar period, and about popular behavior and revolts, first, for example, in the form of flight from the manor, then in the development of socialist, national, or peasant movements, and later as revolts in rural areas in the interwar period and opposition to collectivization in the People’s Republic of Poland. Leszczyński shows that in the past the peasants had no interest in working well. He presents the working conditions in factories in the early period of industrialization and the emerging conflicts. The author of the essay considers that the facts and phenomena in the history of the peasants presented by Leszczyński may be a good starting and reference point for analyses of very different matters in historiography and in contemporary research. He appreciates Leszczyński’s wide-ranging, anti-elite, and pro-people synthesis.

Keywords

PL

chłopi; robotnicy; wieś; fabryka; szlachta; inteligencja; stosunki pracy; historia Polski

EN

peasants; workers; rural areas; factory; nobility; intelligentsia; labor relations; history of Poland

• Publisher: Instytut Studiów Politycznych PAN
• Journal: Kultura i Społeczeństwo
• Year: 2020
• Volume: 64
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 181-198

Dates

published

2020-12-29

Contributors

author

Marcin Kula

• Akademia Teatralna im. Aleksandra Zelwerowicza w Warszawie

Identifiers

DOI

10.35757/KiS.2020.64.4.8