The history of Poland seems to be one of ancient glory and tolerance, lost uprisings, and an endless struggle for independence. Based on his scholarly work, Brian Porter-Szücs questions this very narrative, discussing new approaches, and how they have changed our idea of Polish history.

Poland in the Modern World presents a history of the country from the late nineteenth century to the present, incorporating new perspectives from social and cultural history and positioning it in a broad global context.

• Challenges traditional accounts Poland that tends to focus on national, political history, emphasizing the country’s ‘exceptionalism’.
• Presents a lively, multi-dimensional story, balancing coverage of high politics with discussion of social, cultural and economic changes, and their effects on individuals’ daily lives.
• Explores both the regional diversity within Poland and the country’s place within Europe and the wider world.
• Provides a new interpretive framework for understanding key historical events in Poland’s modern history, including the experiences of World War II and the postwar communist era.

Brian Porter-Szücs is Professor of History at the University of Michigan, where he has taught since 1994. He is the author of Faith and Fatherland: Catholicism, Modernity, and Poland (2011) and When Nationalism Began to Hate: Imagining Modern Politics in Nineteenth-Century Poland (2000). He is also the co-editor, with Bruce Berglund, of Christianity and Modernity in Eastern Europe (2010).

Co-sponsored by the European Studies Center, the History Department, the Polish Cultural Council of Pittsburgh, the Polish Cultural Institute New York, the Polish Studies Association, and the Centre for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies.