This volume presents various aspects of public history practices in Poland, alongside their historical development and theoretical reflections on public history.
Despite a long tradition and variety of forms of public history, the very term "public history", or literally speaking "history in the public sphere", has been in use in Poland only since the 2010s. This edited collection contains chapters that focus on numerous practices and media forms in public history including historical memory, heritage tourism, historical re-enactments, memes and graphic novels, films, archives, archaeology and oral history. As such, the volume brings together the Polish experiences to wider international audiences and shares Polish controversies related to public history within the academic discourse, beyond media news and politically engaged commentaries. Furthermore, it sheds crucial light on the developments of collective memory, historical and political debates, the history of Poland and East-Central Europe, and the politics of post-World War Two and post-communist societies.
Authored by a team of academic historians and practitioners from the field, Public History in Poland is the perfect resource for students from a variety of disciplines including Public History, Heritage, Museum Studies, Anthropology, and Archaeology.
Introduction: Public History in Poland
Joanna Wojdon
Part 1: Public History and Politics
1. The Roots of the Twenty-First-Century Politics of History: The Case of Poland in Central Europe
Łukasz Kamiński
2. Towards the Ideal Vision of the 20th Century Polish History. On the Post-2015 Polish Politics of History
Rafał Stobiecki
3. New Historical Museums in Poland
Paweł Ukielski
4. Polish Historical Museums and Challenges of the Twenty-First Century
Anna Ziębińska-Witek
5. The Role of Memorial Sites in Public History: The Case of Auschwitz State Museum
Piotr Trojański
6. National Pride and Echoes of Local Identity: Public History in Silesian Towns
Przemysław Wiszewski
Part 2: Public History and Research
7. Oral History in Poland
Marta Kurkowska-Budzan
8. Polish Archives: Old and New and Their Role as Public History Institutions
Lucyna Harc
9. Book Publishers as Public Historians: The Polish Case
Ewa Jabłońska-Stefanowicz
10. Pro-Social and Socialized Archaeology (Public Archaeology) in Polish Style
Anna Zalewska
Part 3: Public History and Leisure
11. Polish Feature Films as Public History
Piotr Zwierzchowski
12. Polandball: Memes and Graphic Novels as Public History
Anna Borkiewicz
13. The Historical Reenactment Movement in Poland and Its Specificity
Filip Wolański
14. Gaming the Polish Past: Case Study of Kolejka (The Queue)
Joanna Wojdon
Biography
Joanna Wojdon is an Associate Professor at the Institute of History, University of Wrocław, Poland, member of the Steering Committee of the International Federation for Public History and chair of the Commission for Public History of the Committee of Historical Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
