RECOVERING FORGOTTEN HISTORY - 15TH EDITION OF THE PROJECT in English-Language Academic Textbooks

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RECOVERING FORGOTTEN HISTORY - 15TH EDITION OF THE PROJECT in English-Language Academic Textbooks
RECOVERING
FORGOTTEN HISTORY
    ”The Image of East-Central Europe
in English-Language Academic Textbooks”
15TH EDITION OF THE PROJECT
            9–24 June 2017
       Warszawa / Toruń / Kraków
A FOREWORD                                                                                                                  PIOTR
     TO THE ”RECOVERING                                                                                                        WOŹNIAK
                                                                                                                                THE PRESIDENT

     FORGOTTEN HISTORY”                                                                                              OF THE MANAGEMENT BOARD

     PROJECT

“
As one of the largest companies in Poland, PGNiG SA has a duty to-       The conference entitled ”Recovering Forgotten History. The Image of
wards the society which goes beyond its business activity. Corporate     East-Central Europe in English-Language Academic Textbooks” fits
social responsibility in the modern sense also covers the care for the   perfectly into our activities conducted as part of the ”We warm up
heritage of the national memory. Since February 2016, we have been       Polish Hearts” programme. It is a wonderful project. Recovering the
successfully carrying out the innovative ”We warm up Polish Hearts”      truth about the Polish history should be a priority of the historical
programme, whose aim is the care for patriotic values, historical        policy pursued by Poland. We cannot allow the ”Polish death camps”
education and building our Polish national community. It forms part      lie to prevail. For 11 years now, the ”Recovering Forgotten History”
of a long-term and carefully thought-out strategy. It is also impor-     conference has been helping to correct those lies in English-language
tant that the knowledge of history lets us better understand the con-    academic textbooks. The Foundation for Civic Space and Public Pol-
temporary geopolitics, which impacts the interests of our company        icy, the organiser of the conference, fills in the gaps in the Polish
and the entire Polish economy alike.                                     history. As a Polish company, we want to help the foundation to ac-
                                                                         complish this task. We encourage everyone to get to know this ex-
                                                                         traordinary initiative.
Far away from cameras, far away from all the bustle and publicity, far
                                                                                    away from emotional excitement and delusions of superiority, accu-
                                                                                    sations and resentments, which are so characteristic of the ”fight” for
PROF. PIOTR                                                                         the truth in the contemporary public ”debate”, the organisers of the
GLIŃSKI                                                                             event undertake painstaking work at the grass roots. They analyse the
                                                                                    content of English-language textbooks and look for ways to commu-
DEPUTY PRIME                                                                        nicate with their authors and convince them to the Polish point of view
MINISTER, MINISTER                                                                  in an honest and sincere discussion and not in a duel with ideological
OF CULTURE AND                                                                      clubs.
NATIONAL HERITAGE
LET US RECOVER THE TRUTH                                                            This work is priceless. Its value resides, among other things, in the

  “
ABOUT POLISH HISTORY                                                                persistence of the positive changes it brings. When the participants of
                                                                                    the project manage to convince influential foreign historians that the
                                                                                    Polish vision of the history is the right one not because it is Polish, but
                                                                                    because it is simply true and then they—of their own free will and with
                                                                                    personal conviction—incorporate it in their textbooks, the in-depth
                                                                                    knowledge about the history of Poland will be passed on to the future
    There are those who say that the truth does not exist and that what             elites of Western societies.
    seems the truth is not a reflection of reality, but a subjective construct,
    i.e. that we live in a reality that is completely relative and fluid.           Consequently, the initiative of the organisers of ”Recovering Forgot-
    Our view is different. The values that we believe in lead us towards quite      ten History” is utterly important because it appeals not to the hearts
    a different standpoint: not only does the truth exist, but serving the truth    (where it would probably be fast re-forgotten), but to the minds of
    is our inalienable duty, even if determining the historical facts is often a    foreign students. It has been that way for 11 years, which is particular-
    tedious and arduous process, which may not be fully successful.                 ly important, because continuity forms an integral part of the project:
                                                                                    without this, it would never become so influential. Thanks to the dis-
    I have no doubt whatsoever that such axiological assumptions are pur-           cussions taking place under the auspices of the ”Recovering Forgotten
    sued by the organisers of the ”Recovering Forgotten History” conference.        History” project, we have managed to change the content of foreign
    Otherwise, they would not be carrying out the task they have set before         academic textbooks in such matters as the ”Polish death camps” lie,
    themselves.                                                                     the ”liberation” by the Soviet Union’s Red Army in 1945, knowledge
                                                                                    about the Warsaw Uprising, the Soviet invasion on 17 September 1939
    For Poles, due to the ordeals we have endured in the history, historical        and the role of John Paul II and Solidarity in overthrowing the com-
    truth is also a certificate of the condition of the community we create. The    munism.
    ”Recovering Forgotten History” project is in line with this fact. It combines
    the search for the truth, which is the obligation of any decent historian,      There are those who say that history is written by the winners. The in-
    with the Polish cause, which is the duty of each patriot.                       itiators and participants of the ”Recovering Forgotten History” project
                                                                                    prove beyond any reasonable doubt that it is not the only possibility.
    It is not only in this synergistic approach that the phenomenon                 This is why they deserve the greatest praise.
    of the ”Recovering Forgotten History” initiative resides. The ob-
    ject of the work carried out here is worthy of highest recognition.
PROF. ANDRZEJ
      S. KAMIŃSKI:
      THE AUTHOR
      OF THE ”RECOVERING
      FORGOTTEN HISTORY”
      PROJECT
It was an immensely successful idea to organise conferences as part of which
authors and editors of publications printed in many thousands (or even millions)
of copies come to a country so cursorily described in the accounts of the histo-
ry of Europe and the world, World War II, the Cold War and the European culture
and about which those authors and editors used to know so little. The project
affords a unique opportunity to change the image of Poland in English-speaking
countries and, consequently, in the entire world.

Prof. Andrzej Sulima Kamiński graduated from the Faculty of History at the
Jagiellonian University in Kraków. Later, he completed post-doctoral studies at
Stanford and Oxford. In 1970–1982, he was a lecturer at the Columbia Universi-
ty in the City of New York. Since 1982, he has been teaching history at George-
town University in Washington. The professor specialises in the history of the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, East-Central Europe and Russia in the 16th
to 18th centuries. He emphasises the multinational, multireligious and multicul-    His Jewish undergraduate and Ph.D. students speak about the ”Kamiński
tural character of the Commonwealth.                                                School” in Jewish historiography, while the professor’s activity in Ukrain-
                                                                                    ian community has served to build bridges between Ukrainian and Polish
In his lectures and publications, he points to relations between the civic tradi-   elites. Prof. Andrzej Kamiński has devoted his time to serve the interests of
tion and the system of values in the Commonwealth. He emphasises that the           Poland and Poles multiple times. He worked for Poland and the post-Soviet
history of Poland should have a strong presence in the history of European par-     area as part of the East Central European Scholarship Program (ECESP).
liamentarism and constitutionalism, which has been neglected and is now being       The professor took part in selection of candidates to the programme and
recovered from oblivion. He is the author of many books and articles dedicated      then served as a scientific advisor to the scholarship holders. In recognition
to the history and culture of East-Central European countries. The professor        of the professor’s achievements, on 3 March 2008, he was awarded the
has also contributed to dispelling numerous stereotypes about Poland in vari-       Commander’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta by the late President
ous periods of history.                                                             of Poland Lech Kaczyński.
“
                               I do not know a more efficient way of changing the (up to now usual-
                               ly unfavourable) image of Poland and the entire region, which could
                               be described as the heritage of the First Polish Republic, held by the
                               American academic community and, through this community, by
                               millions of students from the United States and other Western uni-
                               versities using American textbooks. In the atmosphere of an intel-
                               lectual dialogue accompanying the conference, surrounded by the
                               most magnificent and dramatic relics of Polish cultural and historical
                               tradition, we can witness a small but true miracle. It consists in the
                               fact that books shaping the beliefs of American elites are amended
                               in ways that are consistent with the Polish historical perspective and
                               beneficial, to put it briefly, to the Polish statehood. During one of
                               the conferences, we succeeded in convincing, for example, authors
                               of the two most popular American textbooks on the history of Rus-
                               sia that it is worth making an honest mention of Katyn, adequately
                               presenting the meaning of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, exposing
                               the attractive force of the political, systemic and cultural model of
                               the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 16th and 17th centuries
                               for the neighbouring countries and, last but not least, changing the
                               term Russia to the more adequate Rus’ or Rutenia when referring to
                               the area of today’s Ukraine and Belarus in the Middle Ages and in the
                               early modern era. Is it too little? On the contrary, it is a huge achieve-
                               ment. No five- or even thirty-second video coverage in CNN will have
                               any major impact. The content of those footages will be forgotten
ANDRZEJ                        by its random viewers after several seconds, at most days or weeks.
NOWAK                          Textbooks on the history of the European civilisation or Russia, which
PROFESSOR                      are improved thanks to the conferences, have to be ”crammed” by
OF THE INSTITUTE OF HISTORY,   American students. The Katyn massacre or some reminiscence of
THE JAGIELLONIAN UNIVERSITY    the Polish Golden Age may remain in their memory. They will be-
                               come the political, business, cultural and OPINION-FORMING elites of
                               America. If we underestimate this ”channel” of influencing their ideas
                               about our region and about Poland, a great chance will be wasted.
RECOVERING
FORGOTTEN HISTORY:
THE MOST IMPORTANT INFORMATION
                                                                                     03
                                                                                     One of the major achievements of the project is the offer made to Prof. Andrzej
                                                                                     Nowak in 2016 by a publisher from Harvard University Press to publish a text-
                                                                                     book entitled History of Modern Poland, which is currently under preparation.

 01
                                                                                     The book is to be published in 2017. The publishers of Oxford and Pittsburgh
                                                                                     offered the experts taking part in the conference an opportunity to publish
                                                                                     three other textbooks.

 The basic aim of the project is to change the negative image of Poland and
 the region of East-Central Europe in the Western historiography and media
 content. ”Recovering Forgotten History” stands for annual meetings (organ-

                                                                                     04
 ised for 11 years) of invited authors and publishers of English-language his-
 torical books with Polish and foreign experts. The reviews and discussions on
 the analysed texts result in introduction of the desired supplementations and
 corrections.                                                                        The participants of the meetings of the ”Recovering Forgotten History” se-
                                                                                     ries include English-speaking publishers and authors of academic textbooks

 02
                                                                                     and historical monographs, as well as Polish historians and experts from the
                                                                                     Visegrad Group countries and other countries of East-Central Europe.

 The conferences consist in revising information contained in university textbooks
 such as History of Western Civilization, History of World Civilization or Western

                                                                                     05
 Society, which are the basic sources of information on the history, societies and
 culture of the countries of Europe and the world. The texts contained in those
 sources are read by all students, regardless of the field of study, in the United
 States and in countries of the Anglo-Saxon culture. The image of Poland’s past in   In the long term, the project is to contribute to reversing the heritage of the
 the United States and in the Anglo-Saxon world is shaped to a large extent by a     nineteenth-century historiography with its Germany- and Russia-centric per-
 small group of approx. 15 publishers and approx. 50 historians.                     spective on the East-Central Europe and the history of the 20th century.
The topics that require rectification
                                                           and are often referred to in discussions

87 87
REVIEWED
TEXTBOOKS AND
                    PROFESSORS FROM
                    THE UNITED STATES,
                                                   “Polish
                                                death camps”
                                                                        The liberation of Poland
                                                                   and the entire East-Central Europe
                                                                        by the Red Army in 1945
                                                                                                        The Polish fascism after
                                                                                                         the coup d’état carried
                                                                                                            out by Piłsudski

MONOGRAPHS THAT     THE UNITED KING-
REACH HUNDREDS      DOM, CANADA
OF MILLIONS OF      AND ISRAEL           Knowledge about the Warsaw Ghetto
                                         Uprising, but lack of knowledge about
                                                                                    Glorification of Mikhail Gorbachev as the
                                                                                 ”vanquisher of communism” with no reference
STUDENTS ALL OVER   ENGAGED                      the Warsaw Uprising              to the role of Pope John Paul II and Solidarity
THE WORLD           IN THE PROJECT

27
COOPERATING
EDITORS
                    15
                     EDITIONS
                     OF THE PROJECT
                                             The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact portrayed as a pragmatic choice made by Stalin
                                               and the Soviet invasion of 17 September 1939 interpreted as an attempt
                                                         to protect civilians against the German occupation

AND PUBLISHERS       OVER 11 YEARS

RECOVERING
                                                                                                     The conviction that Europe
                                                                                                     ends at the eastern border
                                                                                                            of Germany

FORGOTTEN
HISTORY IN FIGURES
Obviously, we cannot expect Poland to compete with Germany in financial terms. However, not
                                                                                                only does Germany spend a lot of money, but it also does it wisely. Apart from that, they have

RECOVERING
                                                                                                an excellent knowledge of the reality at American universities, explains Prof. Andrzej Kamiński
                                                                                                We, in turn, cherish delusions that we will be able to change the vision of the Polish history and
                                                                                                strengthen the position of our country through the Polish community in America.

FORGOTTEN HISTORY
                                                                                                As a result, the authors of books on the history of the world civilisation who have to write
                                                                                                something about Poland use German and Russian sources, adds the coordinator of the
                                                                                                ”Recovering Forgotten History” project, Eulalia Łazarska, representing the Foundation of
                                                                                                Civic Space and Public Policy. However, the historical traditions in those countries are not
IN THE MEDIA                                                                                    favourable for us. We face this problem constantly at the ‘Recovering Forgotten History’
                                                                                                conferences. In those serious academic books, we sometimes encounter information that
                                                                                                are utterly absurd for Poles.

                                                                                                How to prevent a situation in which the history
                                                                                                of Poland and the East-Central Europe at foreign
THE BATTLE
FOR HISTORY IS ON
                                                                                                universities is taught based exclusively on Ger-
                                                                                                man and Russian historiography? Prof. Andrzej            ”Only this
                                                                                                Kamiński claims that publishing Polish historical
www.nowahistoria.interia.pl                                                                     books in the United States is not a good solution.
                                                                                                If those textbooks are not published by universi-
                                                                                                                                                         kind of historical
                                                                                                ty publishing houses, no one will read them, says
                                                                                                Prof. Andrzej Kamiński, who works at George-             policy makes
                                                                                                town University and has an excellent knowledge
   Our task is to remove gaps in the history of Poland, which unfortunately is not appro-
                                                                                                of the realities of the American academic com-
                                                                                                munity. The right solution is to approach foreign
                                                                                                                                                         sense”
   priately represented by Western scholars,says Prof. Andrzej Kamiński to Interia web
                                                                                                authors and convince them in a scholarly discus-
   portal in the interview, explaining that the reason for this situation should be sought in
                                                                                                sion to make supplementations and corrections.
   the activity of German and Russian historians dating back to the 19th century.
                                                                                                Publishing books to say that Poles are the best is pointless. No American historian is going
   In the 19th century, when the contemporary knowledge about history was being
                                                                                                to pay attention to that. The only reasonable way is what this programme is based on: es-
   formed, taking national forms, often nationalistic or—which is of great significance
                                                                                                tablishing contacts with foreign scholars. Importantly, we do not pressurise them or censor
   from the Polish perspective—in some cases imperialistic, Poland as a state was not on
                                                                                                their books. If we are able to convince them to make changes, they do it. If no, we can do
   the maps. We certainly were a nation, an idea, but there was no state as such. At the
                                                                                                nothing. However, the conference provides them with an opportunity to get to know the Pol-
   same time, the superpowers taking part in our partitions such as Russia or Germany
                                                                                                ish perspective, comments Prof. Maciej Janowski, one of the experts participating in the ”Re-
   were able to formulate a well-established version of history with a message that was
                                                                                                covering Forgotten History” project. ”I have had the pleasure of participating in the project
   favourable to them. Even earlier, the Empress of Russia Catherine the Great used to
                                                                                                for several years and I think that if historical policy is to make sense, it has to be the kind of
   pay hefty amounts to Voltaire for writing pasquils about the Polish state justifying par-
                                                                                                policy that Professor Andrzej Kamiński is pursuing when implementing this project”, he adds.
   titions, which were widely read in the entire Enlightenment-era Europe. It is this German
   and Russian version of history that entered the European and global canon and was
                                                                                                It is important to understand the mechanism of the enterprise. The project does not have
   preserved in this form and not a different one, the Professor Kamiński explains.
                                                                                                the form of a traditional scholarly conference with speakers’ presentations followed by a
                                                                                                short discussion. In the ”Recovering Forgotten History” project, it is the talks and discus-
   We are witnessing—let us not be afraid to name it—a permanent battle for history. It is
                                                                                                sions that are the most important element of the meeting.
   nothing new. Some countries spend huge money on it nowadays – he says. For example,
   Germany spends approx. 20 million EUR to ensure operation of the German Institute at
   Georgetown University. This unit educates American scholars, who later work at other
   American universities.
What we try to achieve is to improve a given author’s research work that we receive          Another outcome of the ”Recovering Forgotten History” project is the agreement between
 in the form of manuscripts of his books through discussions. At the moment, approx.          the Harvard publishing house and Prof. Andrzej Nowak concerning a book on the history
 90% are manuscripts of books that will be published only after the conference, says          of Poland in the 19th and 20th centuries. There is no doubt that a work by such a promi-
 Prof. Andrzej Kamiński.                                                                      nent scholar as Prof. Andrzej Nowak will
                                                                                              be free from misrepresentations and
 I would also like to emphasise one thing, because it seems that not everyone under-          gaps. Without our programme, this pro-
 stands that: it is not only historians and authors who participate in the conference, but    ject would not be possible, Prof. Andrzej
 also publishers. If we invite Kathleen McDermott of Harvard, we can talk to a person
 that has a great influence on the decision on what historical books will be published by
                                                                                              Kamiński points out. What are other tan-
                                                                                              gible effects of the ”Recovering Forgot-         ”It is not
 Harvard University Press and, consequently, what books will be read by historians all        ten History” project? Professor John Mc-
 over the world because Harvardian books are read by everyone, he adds. It turns out
 that not all historians are very eager to make corrections to accommodate the sugges-
                                                                                              Neill of Georgetown University contacted
                                                                                              us himself with a manuscript of his new
                                                                                                                                               a regular
 tions of Polish historians. During the conference, there were two such cases. Finally, the
 authors agreed to amend their works only after an intervention by the publisher who
                                                                                              book, History Of The World, to obtain our
                                                                                              feedback on its content and avoid mis-           scientific
                                            threatened not to publish the book. It appears
                                                                                                                                               conference”
                                                                                              takes, Eulalia Łazarska reveals. And he
                                            that publishers appreciate our achievements       is an internationally renowned historian.
                                            since they themselves ask for comments on
                                            books that they intend to publish, notes the      The project is not a regular scholarly

”Foreign
                                            Polish historian.                                 conference with lectures and at most
                                                                                              15-minutes-long discussion, if any. Here, the dialogue is on-going. As a result, we are able
                                          Prof. Andrzej Kamiński shares a meaningful          to convince world-famous historians that the history of Poland was different after all and
publishers came                           example from this year’s conference. One
                                          of the discussed publications was a book
                                                                                              sometimes of significance to the global history. They will not write about our country only
                                                                                              to please us. They have to have scientific arguments that the history of Poland helps to

to appreciate
                                          by Prof. Karin Friedrich entitled ”The Other        explain the processes taking place in the world. It is a challenge for us to prove it, explains
                                          Prussia. Royal Prussia, Poland and Liberty          Prof. Maciej Janowski, pointing to the dual effect of the project: a project that brings results.
                                          1596–1772”, issued by Cambridge Universi-           Thanks to the efforts of the participants of the ”Recovering Forgotten History” project,
our achieve-                              ty and granted awards in the United States.
                                          The publication interprets the history of Po-
                                                                                              changes have been made to over eighty foreign textbooks and historical books, and the
                                                                                              Polish initiative has gained recognition among foreign scholars. The results are nothing but

ments”                                    land in a manner that is different from what
                                          is typical of the German scholarly tradition.
                                                                                              positive for the image of Poland abroad since—unlike what others may want us to think—we
                                                                                              have nothing to be ashamed of, he sums up.
                                          The findings of the historian are closer to
                                          the Polish perspective: due to the predato-
 ry politics of the Prussian King Frederick II, Poland fell prey to the first partition in                                                                 — ARTUR WRÓBLEWSKI
 1772. The publisher and two German historians took part in the scholarly discussion.
 Participation in the ”Recovering Forgotten History” project convinced them to translate
 the English book into German and publish it in the country of our western neighbours.

 Will this book be published in German? I have no idea, comes the response from the
 initiator of the project. However, we have undertaken an attempt to introduce the Polish
 perspective on the history of Prussia into the German historiography, casting doubt on
 the German interpretation, which is unfavourable for us. As far as I know, the interest
 in the book is so high that it is likely to appear in Germany, he adds.
This is why a regular American gets to know Poland through the perspective of the tragedy
                                                                                                   of Holocaust, mass executions and Auschwitz etc. However, they have no idea about the

            RECOVERING
                                                                                                   three partitions of Poland or Piłsudski. For Americans, these are very remote topics.

                                                                                                   However, the same applies to publications from other countries, e.g. Germany.

      FORGOTTEN HISTORY
                                                                                                   I spend half of my life in France, where my children live. Since it is Europe, knowledge about
                                                                                                   Poland is at a much higher level than in the United States. However, in Europe, we have
                                                                                                   enough other problems, including growing populism, right-wing parties and terrorism. I do
                                                                                                   not know Germany, but Germans are probably more interested in Poland. They are your
                                                                  IN THE MEDIA                     neighbours and a lot of Poles live there. They are lucky to have the fabulous Lewandowski
                                                                                                   play for them.

                                                                                                   How should Poland respond to purposeful distortions of historical facts so that its actions
                                                                                                   are effective?
PROF. JOHN                                                                                         What kind of distortions are you referring to?
MERRIMAN                                                                                           The most frequent case is the ”Polish death camps” lie.
THE USE OF THE TERM
”POLISH DEATH CAMPS”                                                                               Obviously, you have to react to it. I do not remember which idiot said that, but it was a sign
IS A SIGN OF STUPIDITY                                                                             of stupidity of the statement’s author. If you want an example of lack of knowledge in Amer-
                                                                                                   icans, in particular politicians, it is a prime one. It was a total madness. It was evident that
www.superhistoria.pl
                                                                                                   somebody had to react to it.

                                                                                                   How should Poland intervene in the case of such erroneous statements as ”Polish camps”
   Marcin Bartnicki: Polish politicians and journalists often claim that the authors               to make the reaction effective but not too harsh? Journalists in Germany, Norway and the
   of books and articles published in the West intentionally misrepresent the Polish               United Kingdom often shorten the complex term to those two words.
   history (a note by PGNiG: the interview was conducted before Donald Trump’s visit
   to Poland). Is it a serious problem or do we exaggerate?                                        It is an obvious error that should be reacted to. It is a stupidity and a misunderstanding dis-
                                                                                                   torting what happened to Jews in Poland, but also in Hungary, Bulgaria, France and many
   Prof. John Merriman: Americans know very little about everything that is located out-           other places. We must be clear that it presents a totally false interpretation of what hap-
   side America. I do not think that the President of the United States, i.e. currently un-        pened.
   fortunately Donald Trump, could even locate Poland on a map. This is exactly a part of
   the problem: Americans have always been interested in the American history and know             You specialise in the history of the nineteenth-century France. How did you become inter-
   very little about the world. Even 70% of Americans are unable to locate France on a             ested in the history of Poland?
   map of the world. It is rather funny when some of them place France in Africa, next
   to Zimbabwe. It seems that the present president of the United States belongs to the            The history of France in the 19th and 20th centuries is the subject of all my books except one:
   same category.                                                                                  “A History of Modern Europe: From Renaissance to the Present” (editor’s note: several hun-
                                                                                                   dreds of thousand copies sold all over the world). In 2006, I was invited to Poland for a
   Your assessment of the knowledge of the American society is very harsh.                         discussion about this book. As a result, in the new edition, I dedicated much more space to
                                                                                                   Poland. The first time I came to Poland was as a young boy. I was in Warszawa in 1969 and
   Yes, but it is the reality. For years, the society’s interest in history has been decreasing.   I remember that when I looked down from the Palace of Culture and Science, I saw streets
   The millennials are more interested in getting hold of a new smartphone than in history,        still covered with debris. I did not return to Poland until 2006.
   even that of their own country. Americans are mostly interested in the American Civil
   War, the American War of Independence and World War II.
This is my fourteenth visit to Kraków. I have had an opportunity to spend a lot of time       Do such conferences make a significant contribution to eliminating similar shortcomings?
there and I have learned a great deal about Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine and Belarus. Po-
land is my favourite country, second to France. I have friends here and they help me to       Prof. Andrzej S. Kamiński invited many experts, not only from Poland, who analysed mis-
get to know much more than before about Poland.                                               takes and suggested corrections. I think it works well and helps authors to create better
                                                                                              books. In my opinion, it is a very successful and important programme. It contributes to
There must be something captivating in this country.                                          achieving the goal of disseminating knowledge about the history of East-Central Europe in
                                                                                              the United States and the United Kingdom. If Americans elect Donald Trump, who knows
You can always make comparisons. Here are some obvious things. In France, almost              nothing about anything, we need to educate the next generation that will have knowledge
no one goes to church. Only 5% of those who declare themselves to be Catholic go to           about the rest of the world, about the challenges, tragedies, successes, which abound in
mass. The average age of priests is 70 and one fourth of them are over 80. In Poland,         the Polish history and which have shaped its current form. This is what we are trying to do.
the situation is completely different. If you go to Saint Mary’s Church in Kraków, with
10 masses celebrated in a day, you can see a totally different picture: there are young
priests and young nuns. It is the kind of Catholicism that has completely disappeared
in France. The reasons for that are interesting. It is just one example of the many com-
parisons that can be made. Another example is the history of Poland during partitions
compared to what happened in Western Europe at the same time.                                                               “Poland had a great impact
Do your students share your interest in Poland?                                                                             on the American constitution”
Yes. The events in Ukraine brought about an increased interest in Central Europe. I work
                                                                                                                            TV REPUBLIKA
at the University of Yale so the students are very good. The history of Poland is taught                                    www.telewizjarepublika.pl
by Timothy Snyder, but I often refer to the history of Poland during my lectures on the
history of France.

What is the single fact related to the history of Poland that is the most interesting for
your students?

I do not teach the history of Poland, but the history of Europe from 1648 to 1945. It
is one of the lectures I give. I talk about Poland in the 1920s and 1930s, which means
                                                                                                                             When will foreign students get
that I obviously talk about the tragedy of World War II. This is what my students are                                        to know the full history of Poland?
interested in.
                                                                                                                             PROGRAMME 1,
The conference you took part in concerned mistakes in the descriptions of the history
of Poland that appear in English-language textbooks. How often do you encounter
                                                                                                                             POLSKIE RADIO
such errors?                                                                                                                 www.polskieradio.pl
I do not read those books. My book is rather top-end. It is read by highly skilled students
of good universities and participants of classes dedicated to the most talented secondary
school students. Consequently, it is not a good example representing the entire Western
civilisation. In the first edition of my book, there was nothing about the Warsaw Uprising                                   “Recovering Forgotten History.
and nearly nothing about ghettoes in Poland. These were not mistakes as such, but rather
an undervaluation of the complex and tragic Polish history. Since that time, I have visited                                  The Image of East-Central Europe
the Warsaw Uprising Museum many times. It is extraordinary. It helped me to get to know                                      in English-Language Academic
the history of Poland and I could expand on this topic in my book.
                                                                                                                             Textbooks”
                                                                                                                             PORANEK RDC
                                                                                                                             www.rdc.pl
RECOVERING
                                                                                              With Prof. James Collins’ great support, I managed to get through to American colleagues
                                                                                              who were writing about the history of Europe, such as Prof. John Merriman. It is he who
                                                                                              came here with A History of Modern Europe since the Renaissance, and I gathered a group
                                                                                              of Polish experts. The discussion about his book stretched over three separate conferences.

FORGOTTEN HISTORY
                                                                                              This is what was required by the high number of corrections and the author’s conviction that
                                                                                              there is another Europe that he had had no idea about. Europe ended with the Iron Curtain.

                                                                                              Grzegorz Chlasta (RDC): What does an American professor think about recovering forgot-
IN THE MEDIA                                                                                  ten history? What does this conference mean to you?

                                                                                              Prof. James Collins: I am not a historian specialising in Polish history, although I have studied
                                                                                              it a bit. I specialise in the history of France in the 16th to 17th century. I examined relations
                                                                                              between France and Poland, mainly because of Henry III. For me, he is a good example of
AN INTERVIEW WITH PROF.                                                                       what should be ”recovered”. In 1468–1789, there was only one adult king of France that
                                                                                              held the Estates General. It was Henry III and he did it twice. I argued that it was due to the
ANDRZEJ KAMIŃSKI
                                                                                              experience that he had gained in Poland. Henry III saw that the parliament could be an effec-
AND PROF. JAMES COLLINS                                                                       tive counterbalance to French magnates, similarly as the Polish Sejm was a counterbalance
OF GEORGETOWN                                                                                 to the Senate. The 1570s were one of the most important moments in the development of
UNIVERSITY                                                                                    the Western political thought. In 1576, the great French philosopher Jean Bodin published
                                                                                              his famous work entitled The Six Books of the Republic, in which he formulated the modern
www.rdc.pl                                                                                    concept of state sovereignty for the first time.

                                                                                              When the Polish delegates went to France to bring the king Henry III with them, they stopped
   Grzegorz Chlasta (RDC): The title of the conference contains the word ”recovering”.        in Metz. The local bishop, a delegate of the Estates General and a member of the royal fami-
   Why?                                                                                       ly, delivered a welcome speech in Latin, which was later published as a pamphlet and trans-
                                                                                              lated into French. It is very probable that the author of the speech was Jean Bodin. When
   Prof. Andrzej Kamiński: I suppose that it is rather obvious for us Poles. We have always   several years later he wrote his classic book in which he dealt with the history of the An-
   been part of Europe. At least since the 10th century, we have been engaged in what we      cient Greece and Rome, he also recounted the history of his own times. For that purpose, he
   call Europe: the civilisation created based on ancient models set out by Aristotle and     used the works of the best historians from all over Europe, but he most often cited Marcin
   Christianity. We ”dropped out” of this civilisation after World War II, when we were in-   Kromer. We know that the Polish delegation of 1573 brought a copy of Kromer’s chronicles.
   vaded and when the Iron Curtain separated us from the remaining part of Europe. In all     Another member of the delegation was a Polish historian, Jan Herburt, who brought his own
   American textbooks on the history and the contemporary world intended for politics         book on the history of Poland, which was quickly translated into French.
   and politicians, Western Europe was the only one that existed at the time. Between
   this part of Europe and Russia, there was ”unchartered land”. When I had to prepare        We started the programme from books concerning the history of the United States and
   materials for students in America, it was difficult to find the necessary information      Europe. Twenty-five years ago, a textbook on the history of the United States would never
   about obvious matters in the textbooks available there. For example: where were good       mention the story I will tell you now. The first English colony in North America was James-
   universities located? No university in Poland was mentioned, neither any famous uni-       town, founded in 1607. Five years later, the famous John Smith brought Polish craftsmen
   versities in Prague or Hungary. Obviously, only Italian, Spanish, German and English       from Gdańsk and Toruń. In 1619, the colonists decided to set up a democratic assembly.
   universities were mentioned. However, all of us know that the universities in Prague and   However, the voting right was given only to men from England. The Polish carpenters went
   Kraków were already there before any German universities were founded. You could           on strike. They said that either they would be allowed to vote or they would refuse to work,
   leaf through three thousand pages of an academic textbook with thousands of photo-         and thus they got the voting rights. Poles fought for the principle of democratic representa-
   graphs representing the European civilisation cast in stone without ever seeing a single   tion and won. I live in Virginia. I have three daughters and a 16-year-old grandson. All the
   picture of Wawel or Zamość.                                                                children in the state learn about the history of Virginia at 10 or 11. When my daughters were
                                                                                              at school in the 1990s, they obviously heard the famous story about the assembly of 1619,
   I think that the fundamental political transformation that took place after 1989 result-   but no mention was made about Poles at the time. My grandson, who learnt about it in 2011,
   ed in a situation in which Americans became open to filling in those white spots with      already knows that Poles were part of that history. This is what the ”recovering” is about.
   a true history instead of calling everything Russia. Up until recently, in each American
   textbook, Kiev was presented as a Russian city.
THE 15TH EDITION                                                                      The monograph entitled Maria Theresa: A Dynastic Life by Rita Krueger, dedicated to the
                                                                                           biography of Maria Theresa, did not bring new materials about the issues that were of par-

     OF THE ”RECOV-
                                                                                           ticular importance for us.

                                                                                           The conference also made it possible to discuss two very important works about Ukraine:

     ERING FORGOTTEN
                                                                                           Wars, Revolutions, Peace Talks and the Politics of National Self-Determination: Ukraine and
                                                                                           Its Borderlands by Mark von Hagen and Young Europe and the Birth of Modern Nationalism
                                                                                           in the Slavic World by Anna Procyk. Those works drew attention to the assessment of Pol-

     HISTORY”
                                                                                           ish-Ukraine relations and their European and Russian repercussions.

                                                                                           The meetings took place in Kraków, Toruń and Warszawa.

     CONFERENCE                                                                            The conference guests visited Catholic churches and old, but still active synagogues. They
                                                                                           were impressed by each of the interesting and distinct cities. If they complained of some-
                                                                                           thing, it was of the lack of time to ”see even more”. Some of them wanted to ”drop in” at
     9–24 JUNE 2017                                                                        Gdańsk and Gdynia, others at Łódź or Zamość and Sandomierz, about which they heard
                                                                                           from their colleagues. Scholars specialising in the times of the Commonwealth of Diverse
                                                                                           Cultures would love to visit Grodno, Vilnius or Lviv and Kiev, whose names repeatedly
During the 15th edition of the ”Recovering Forgotten History” conference, fourteen
                                                                                           popped up during the discussions.
texts were reviewed: 12 manuscripts prepared for the first edition, one translation
of a book that has already been published in the United States and in Poland and is
                                                                                           The authors expressed their gratitude for the detailed comments and extensive suggestions
now to appear in Germany and the sixth edition of a basic textbook on the current
                                                                                           of additions made by the experts, promising to make numerous changes. Some even com-
European politics.
                                                                                           mitted themselves to writing additional chapters. All the publishers were very grateful to
                                                                                           the organisers “for the extraordinarily relevant comments”. The conference was conducted
The participants included 15 authors from the United States, Canada and the United
                                                                                           in a focused and pleasant (or even warm) atmosphere; it was very satisfying to see the
Kingdom, 7 publishers from the United States, Canada and Germany and 39 experts,
                                                                                           authors and publishers establish friendly relations with the experts representing numerous
including scholars from Israel, Germany, Slovakia, Ukraine, the United States and
                                                                                           Polish universities and research establishments, as well as with foreign experts.
Hungary.
                                                                                           With the help and engagement of Polskie Górnictwo Naftowe i Gazownictwo (PGNiG) and
Three of the discussed academic textbooks will influence a wide range of Eng-
                                                                                           the PGNiG Foundation, information about the project appeared in numerous radio and TV
lish-speaking students all over the world: History of the World by Prof. John McNeill,
                                                                                           programmes, and in the most popular Internet portals, reaching millions of domestic and
The Ottomans in Europe by Gábor Ágoston and Europe Today: A Twenty-first Century
                                                                                           foreign readers. The patrons and media partners of the projects were: WSieci, WSieci His-
Introduction by Erik Jones. The other monographs will be used as auxiliary materials
                                                                                           toria, TVP Info and the Polish Press Agency (PAP). The interviews with the participants, in-
for the undergraduate and basic levels in master’s and doctoral classes. Two of the
                                                                                           cluding the foreign guests and the organisers, demonstrated the importance of the project
discussed works were a tribute towards our colleagues from the Visegrad Group: ex-
                                                                                           in disseminating knowledge about the history of Poland and the region of Central Europe in
perts for the texts Between the Sacred and the Profane: Clericalism, the Sciences, and
                                                                                           the world, and the role of the seminar in changing the image of our country abroad.
the Romanian-Hungarian Contest for the Moldavian Csangos by Chris Davis and Borders
on the Move: Identity Politics and Territorial Change in the Hungarian-Slovak Borderland
by Leslie Waters. Blood and Paper: European Diplomacy and Cultural Knowledge in the
Aftermath of Anti-Jewish Libels by Magda Teter, which is a work of an impressive scope,                                       — EULALIA ŁAZARSKA
presents the ”policy” of the Catholic Church towards Jews in the context of accusations                                        THE PRESIDENT OF THE FOUNDATION
                                                                                                                                OF CIVIC SPACE AND PUBLIC POLICY
of ritual murders.

The Polish-Jewish issues made Polish experts criticise certain interpretations and omis-
sions that appeared in two of the discussed texts that concerned other issues: Edge
of Destruction: Warsaw Intelligentsia under Nazi Occupation, 1939–1944 by Jadwiga                                  — PROF. ANDRZEJ S. KAMIŃSKI
Biskupska and Justice behind the Iron Curtain: Nazis on Trial in Communist Poland by                                                    GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY
Alexander Prusin and Gabriel Finder.
“
RECOVERING
FORGOTTEN
HISTORY                                                            I will never write anything about World War II and the Cold
                                                                   War in the same way as before. This conference was an eye

“
IN THE OPINION OF PROFESSORS                                       and mind opening experience, showing the manner in which the
                                                                   history about America in the second half of the 20th century
                                                                   could be and should have been written...

                                                                   The ideas which are shared here will have a beneficial impact
The conference proved a unique combination of an intellectual      on millions of American students who will be reading the text-
discussion and learning through experience. The conference sig-    books (revised by you) during their classes... The passion, pat-
nificantly exceeded my expectations as a forum for getting to      riotism and humanism: these are the distinguishing features
know the local, East-Central European perspective on my book       of the Polish national character. I hope that I will be able to
concerning the political and administrative decentralisation af-   convey this to my readers.
ter 1989. The two reviewers who read my manuscript provided
us, me and my publisher, with many insights and valuable criti-
cism.
                                                                                               — PROF. RANDY ROBERTS

                                                                   “
                                                                                                   PERDUE UNIVERSITY
My book improved a lot after the conference. What is more,
the conference enlivened my classes in political sciences, which
I conduct for students at Colby College. Soon, I will be teach-
ing ”Post-Communist Transformation” and I wish to enrich the
recommended reading list with two memoirs I heard about in my      I and my colleagues and co-authors are greatly indebted to the
discussions with Prof. Andrzej Kamiński, and a Polish film about   conference and its participants. The discussions conducted at the
which I heard from other experts. The experience of exchanging     conference during the two visits to Poland, which were undoubt-
ideas with my colleagues, making new acquaintances and the         edly one of the most intellectually challenging and stimulating in
time spend in the microcosm of the East-Central European histo-    my academic career, forced me to change the concept of how
ry and culture were immensely valuable for me as a scholar.        I conduct my two classes: ”The History of Western Civilisation”
                                                                   and ”The Europe of the 20th Century”. I am very grateful for it.

                         — PROF. JENNIFER YODER
                                     COLBY COLLEGE, WATERVILLE                           — PROF. MEREDITH VELDMAN
                                                                                            LUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY
THE HONORARY PATRONAGE
               OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC
               OF POLAND ANDRZEJ DUDA

          The project has been organised by:

Miasto Toruń

                     Media partners

                w w w.ci v i cs p a ce.o r g.pl
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