The article discusses a thought-provoking – though not entirely unproblematic – attempt to investigate attitudes towards the past in the urban context of premodern Poland. The work in question, Piotr Okniński’s monograph on the creation of official historical narratives of the city of Kraków, is examined against the broader backdrop of both Polish and international scholarly discourse. This discourse concerns the mechanisms of collective memory and its politically motivated suppression, the instruments of remembrance, and the active role of urban elites in shaping an authorised version of the communal past.
This article explores the concept of an emotional community among the first German women students around the turn of the twentieth century, analysing both journalistic and literary texts. Moving beyond terminological disputes surrounding ‘emotions’ and ‘affects’, it adopts Sara Ahmed’s inclusive approach, where affect is seen as integral to emotion. The study draws on Barbara Rosenwein’s definition of emotional communities as groups sharing common interests, values, and goals, often reinforced by texts. Through an analysis of excerpts from Ilse Frapan’s novels, Wir Frauen haben kein Vaterland and Die Arbeit, and articles from women’s magazines Die Studentin and Frauen-Rundschau, the paper investigates how specific emotions – namely compassion and a mix of pride and impostor syndrome – were expressed, cultivated, but also suppressed within this nascent community. It argues that these texts not only reflected but actively shaped the emotional landscape of early women students, highlighting the crucial role of literature in fostering a sense of shared experience and identity.
The article focuses primarily on several problems in the broadly understood environmental history of Poland during the Stalinist period. First and foremost, it points to the category of man's attempts to master the environment. This primarily involves plans to transform nature and implement an economic development model based on industrialisation, devised without accounting for its costs. At the opposite end of the scale came attempts to rule over the environment, which brought Poland some devastating climatic anomalies, notably floods and extreme Siberian-type winters. They had a decisive impact on human behavioural strategies, the organisation of everyday life, and even on politics. The final theme of this study examines human-animal relations from the perspective of Polish environmental history during 1945-56. The aim is to illustrate the character of these relations, the oppressive treatment of animals by humans, and the attempts to change existing practices.
The nineteenth century in Europe marked a period of transition from the feudal system towards a mass society based on the principles of personal freedom and individual responsibility. During this time, new social groups and new elites emerged, among them the intelligentsia, particularly members of liberal professions - lawyers, doctors, journalists, artists, and scientists - who began to appear as an integrated and socially respected group. This development was also evident among the Jews living in the Habsburg Monarchy, where restrictions imposed on this social group were gradually lifted (fi nally in 1867), and their traditional approach to education made them the best-educated ethnic-social group in many regions. Individuals with academic degrees, primarily advocates and physicians, held prominent positions within Jewish groups, serving on the governing bodies of Jewish religious communities. The article examines these processes through the case of Cieszyn Silesia, a relatively small yet one of the most economically and socially advanced regions of the Habsburg Monarchy. The advancement of local Jewish intelligentsia, particularly physicians and lawyers, illustrates Pierre Bourdieu's thesis that capital (economic, cultural, social) accumulated by individual families as the product of their past work can be passed on to the next generation, thereby offering them improved chances for life and future careers.
The article explores the key influences on the activities of Juraj Dobrila (1812-82), a bishop who played a pivotal role in the national integration of Istrian Croats. Istria, a peninsula situated in the northern Adriatic Sea, had been a meeting point between Croatian, Slovenian, and Italian populations. In the nineteenth century, the Italian bourgeoisie dominated the area. The article highlights Bishop Dobrila's attitudes and efforts, characterised by the convergence of religious, social, and national aspirations. It also examines his achieved results and his complex relationships with both ecclesiastical and secular authorities. Despite enjoying the trust of the Holy See and the Habsburg authorities, Bishop Dobrila was unable to secure their full support for his primary goal - the establishment of a boys' seminary (lat. seminarium puerorum) in central Istria. The bishop relied on his own resources and local collaborators to improve the challenging conditions faced by the rural population, predominantly Istrian Croats, in the early stages of national integration. By investing signifi cant efforts and resources, Bishop Dobrila aimed to promote education and literacy. His initiatives laid down a solid foundation for organised political and national mobilisation among Istrian Croats, which continued to grow after his death.
