Birth of the Intelligentsia - 1750-1831

This first of three parts of the History of the Polish Intelligentsia deals with the time from 1750 to 1831. It traces the formation of the intelligentsia as a social class, stresses the importance of the birth of bureaucratic institutions and analyses the results of the collapse of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795.

The three-part work provides a first synthetic account of the history of the Polish intelligentsia from the days of its formation to World War I. Part one (17501831) traces the formation of the intelligentsia as a social class in the epoch of Enlightenment. It stresses the importance of the birth of bureaucratic institutions that created the demand for the educated stratum. It analyses the results of the collapse of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795 the ominous event that transformed the political geography of East Central Europe. The work combines social and intellectual history, tracing both the formation of the intelligentsia as a social stratum and the forms of engagement of the intelligentsia in the public discourse. Thus, it offers a broad view of the group's transformations which immensely influenced the course of the Polish history.

Autorentext

Jerzy Jedlicki is Professor emeritus at the Institute of History at the Polish Academy of Sciences where he was head of the research group for the history of intelligentsia. He also was a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington D.C. Maciej Janowski is Professor at the Institute of History at Polish Academy of Sciences and Recurrent Visiting Associate Professor at the Central European University in Budapest.

Zusammenfassung
«Die insgesamt sehr flüssig geschriebenen Bände stellen auch für einen nicht auf die Ideengeschichte des 19. Jahrhunderts spezialisierten Leser eine sehr gut nachvollziehbare Darstellung der Gruppe dar, die für die gesamtgesellschaftlich-kulturelle, aber auch politisch-nationale Entwicklung zentrale Weichenstellungen vorgenommen hat. [...] Insgesamt handelt es sich um eine Synthese zur polnischen Gesellschafts- und Geistesgeschichte, die bereits jetzt zu einem Standardwerk geworden ist.»
(Heidi Hein-Kircher, Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas 6/2016)

Inhalt
Contents: Birth of the Intelligentsia After the partitions of Poland: Intellectuals in a divided state Modern state institutions and the intellectuals Insurrections or gradual change? The intelligentsia's sense of mission After 1863: reactions to the national catastrophe Intelligentsia and the modern party politics (turn of 19th and 20th centuries) Early 20th century: intelligentsia and the growth of mass society.