Europe, Nationalism, Communism

This collection of articles on Polish history after 1945 begins with a study of the reconstruction of Polish towns after the World War II, presenting how ideological images of the nation transformed the physical form of urban landscapes. The book devotes also a long part to individual identities, exploring the most intimate level of representation of consciousness: autobiographies of Polish immigrants into former German territories. The last two articles explore the identitarian adaptation of Polish anticommunist emigrants in Spain and the possibilities of dispute about Europe at the beginning of Communist regimes in Poland and Central Europe. The book puts problems of private identities in the context of European discourses, showing how politics are a part of individual lives, too.

The Author: José M. Faraldo, historian, studied in Madrid, Moscow, Frankfurt/Oder and Poznä, and has been doing research on communism, nationalism, European unity, and visual and popular culture in former Communist countries. From 1997 to 2002, the author worked at the European University Viadrina, Frankfurt/Oder. At present he is a research fellow at the Center of Research on Contemporary History, (ZZF), Potsdam (Germany).

Contents : Introducing Polish Identities - Medieval Socialist Artifacts. Architecture and Discourses of National Identity in Provincial Poland (1945-1960) - Materials of Memory. Mass Memoirs of the Polish Western Territories - Gloomy Landscapes. Everyday Strategies of Identity in 1960's Poland. A Case Study - Teutonic Knights and Polish Identity. National Narratives and the Socialist Public Sphere - Nation as a dream. The story of Franciszek K. - Defending the Nation in a New Fatherland. Polish Émigrés in Franco's Spain (1939-1969) - Communist Conceptions of 'Europe' and the Beginning of the Cold War (1944-1948).