Polska nowoczesność. Genealogia

Polish Modernity. A Genealogy

In the case of Poland the first signs of modernity, i.e. the ideological influence of the Enlightenment and the economic impact of capitalism, were connected with the attempts to overcome crisis of the Republic. The loss of the independent state brought modernisation problems, which made the underdevelopment of the country a crucial factor affecting Polish culture. The 19th century struggle for modernity was to create cultural patterns, which still define views and attitudes of the Poles.

Keywords: modernity, modernisation, nation, nobility, people.

Tomasz Kizwalter (ur. 1955) – full professor at the Faculty of History of the University of Warsaw. He deals with the history of ideas and collective perceptions in the 19th and 20th centuries, especially the issues of modernization and nation-building processes.
He published: Kryzys Oświecenia a początki konserwatyzmu polskiego (Warsaw 1987), "Nowatorstwo i rutyny". Społeczeństwo Królestwa Polskiego wobec procesów modernizacji (1840–1863) (Warsaw 1991), O nowoczesności narodu. Przypadek polski (Warsaw 1999), Historia powszechna. Wiek XIX (Warsaw 2003), W stronę równości (Cracow 2014), he also co-edited Dzieje Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego 1816–1915 (Warsaw 2016).