Monday, 27 September 2021

Wojciech Piasek: The ethnography of historiography developed in the Polish People’s Republic: a historiographic and methodological case study of Karol Górski. Torun: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Mikołaja Kopernika 2021. ISBN: 978-83-231-4609-4

 



The ethnography of historiography developed in communist Poland is a consequence of the ‘anthropological turn’ in historiographic and methodological studies and an aspect of the ethnography of modern thought in the field of history. This is a proposal of an anthropological view of history as a field of culture. The ethnography of modern thought in the field of history combines reflections classically preserved for the history of historiography, methodology of history and cultural anthropology. Dealing with the case of Górski and reconstructing his vision of the world and man allows for an interpretive reconstruction of the cultural ‘piece’ of historiography developed in the Polish People’s Republic and sketching a fragment of its ‘cartographic image’ and diagnosis. The diagnosis concerns the phenomenon of anthropologising history, whose local variants can be observed in historiography developed in communist Poland.


Wojciech Piasek is a professor at the Institute of History and Archives of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. From 1990 to 1995, he studied at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of Nicolaus Copernicus University (an individual study programme in the field of ethnoarchaeology). From 1992 to 1996, he studied history at the Institute of History and Archives of Nicolaus Copernicus University. His research interests include the ethnography of contemporary thought in the field of history and non-academic forms of history.




Contents

Introduction: The ethnography of historiography developed in the Polish People’s Republic / 9


Chapter 1

‘Being there’

1.1. Górski’s methodological reflection between the wars and during his stay in a prisoner-of-war camp / 31

1.2. Post-war methodological reflection / 37

1.2.1. Immanently historical interpretation / 40

1.2.2. Transcendent interpretation of history / 55

1.2.3. Truth in history / 59


Chapter 2

‘Being here’

2.1. The time between the wars: The Second Polish Republic / 61

2.1.1. Revival movement: Thomism and personalism / 61

2.1.2. Building a new Christian cultural order / 72

2.1.2.1. The crisis in contemporary culture and overcoming it / 74

2.1.2.2. A new historical ideal of Christian culture / 77

2.1.2.3. A new ideal of man / 79

2.1.2.3.1. A person and an individual / 80

2.1.2.3.2. Man and society / 86

2.1.3. A modern ideal of Christian culture / 89

2.2. Post-war: The Polish People’s Republic / 91


Chapter 3

Koinologia

3.1. Koinologia and philosophy / 106

3.2. Koinologia and research practice: sociological and anthropological turn / 113

3.2.1. Koinologia and sociology: ‘a sociological point of view in history’ / 115

3.2.2. Koinologia and cultural anthropology / 119

3.3. Studying small closed communities: a transcendent interpretation of history / 127

3.4. Cultural climate / 135


Chapter 4

History as the history of divine grace

4.1. The theological foundation of culture and its history / 145

4.2. Research on Christianity in Poland as a study of personal and social attitudes to God / 150


Chapter 5

The case of Karol Górski on the cultural map of historiography developed in the Polish People’s Republic and its diagnosis

5.1. The place of Karol Górski’s historical writing on the cultural map of historiography developed in communist Poland / 169

5.1.1. The non-scientistic direction of the modernisation of Polish historiography / 170

5.1.2. The scientistic and non-scientistic anthropologisation of Polish historiography / 179

5.2. Anthropologising history: a diagnosis of Karol Górski’s case / 183

5.2.1. The sensitising concept of anthropologising history / 184

5.2.2. Diagnosing Karol Górski’s case: developing the sensitising concept of anthropologising history / 190


Conclusions / 193

Biographical timeline of Karol Górski / 197

List of sources and literature / 205

Name Index / 221

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