Knowledge in the Shadow of Catastrophe: Key Thinkers of Polish Humanities in the Post-War Era

The volume offers the collection of essays penned by eighteen luminous minds of the 20th century humanities and social sciences in Poland: Stefan Amsterdamski, Nina Assorodobraj-Kula, Bronislaw Baczko, Jan Bloński, Jolanta Brach-Czaina, Michal Glowiński, Oskar Hansen, Maria Janion, Jerzy Jedlicki, Antonii Kępiński, Anna Pawelczyńska, Krzysztof Pomian, Mieczyslaw Porębski, Jan Strzelecki, Wladyslaw Strzemiński, Jerzy Szacki, Jerzy Topolski, and Andrzej Turowski. Celebrated as canonical within their respective fields, these works resonate profoundly in academic as well as social environment today.
What lies at the centre of this collection is political and historical turbulence - the experience of the horror of war and destruction, always a point of reference for any form of political, intellectual or existential engagement. From the bold manifesto-like essays to groundbreaking theoretical writings that shift paradigms, each piece is a testament to intellectual revolution and courage. These are not just writings; they are beacons of transformative thought and conceptual reinvention.
This book can be treated as evidence of the intergenerational dialogue, where scholars whose work and worldview have been to a large extent shaped by the experience of the 1989 political transition, visit their predecessors whose attitudes and ideas emerged in the aftermath of World War II. This is an acknowledgement of genealogy, heritage and influence.

Piotr Filipkowski is a sociologist, a oral historian, and an assistant professor at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw.
Katarzyna Bojarska is an assistant professor in the Department of Culture and Media at the SWPS University in Warsaw.
Ewa Domańska is a Professor of Human Sciences at the Faculty of History at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, and a visiting professor at Stanford University.