Conscious History - (Littman Library of Jewish Civilization) by Aleksiun (Paperback)

About the Book

Historical scholarship was one of the lasting legacies of interwar Polish Jewry. This study shows how Polish Jewish historians worked to create a community aware of its past, its cultural heritage, and its achievements while also working to protect its rights as a minority.

Book Synopsis

Thoroughly researched, this study highlights the historical scholarship that is one of the lasting legacies of interwar Polish Jewry and analyses its political and social context. As Jewish citizens struggled to assert their place in a newly independent Poland, a dedicated group of Jewish scholars fascinated by history devoted themselves to creating a sense of Polish Jewish belonging while also fighting for their rights as an ethnic minority. The political climate made it hard for these men and women to pursue an academic career; instead they had to continue their efforts to create and disseminate Polish Jewish history by teaching outside the university and publishing in scholarly and popular journals. By introducing the Jewish public to a pantheon of historical heroes to celebrate and anniversaries to commemorate, they sought to forge a community aware of its past, its cultural heritage, and its achievements---though no less important were their efforts to counter the increased hostility towards Jews in the public discourse of the day. In highlighting the role of public intellectuals and the social role of scholars and historical scholarship, this study adds a new dimension to the understanding of the Polish Jewish world in the interwar period.

Review Quotes

'This book is great on many levels. But for me the most important is cultural inheritance. The people about whom Professor Aleksiun has written have acquired a voice anew through her and she has demonstrated her membership in the club; she too is a Polish-Jewish historian, just like the ones about whom she writes. And her book is not only about historians but is also a testament to them.' Brian Horowitz, Gal-Ed

'One of this book's many strengths is that, in telling of the writing of history Aleksiun reviews that history as well. This is a remarkable volume that students of the field will refer to often, both for views of the field's significant figures and for Aleksiun's straightforward portrayal of their commitment to both scholarship and community.... The interplay between objectivity and community also resonates both individually and institutionally, precisely because private donors and community organizations play such an important role in the creation of endowed positions, archives, libraries, and museums.' Sean Martin, The Polish Review

'[Conscious History's] strength is exactly where it deals with the richness of Jewish history in Polish, Yiddish and Hebrew, bringing to life a largely forgotten community... it is a must-read both for those interested in the Jewish history of Central Europe and historians of scholarship from and of the region.'
Jan Surman, Jewish Culture and History

'Aleksiun weaves a powerful narrative about public intellectuals, historical scholarship, and Polish-Jewish relations... Conscious History is an innovative and exemplary contribution to scholarship about Polish Jews and interwar Poland that deepens our understanding of many of the questions that continue to animate historians today.'
Joanna Sliwa, H-Poland

'Aleksiun's Conscious History is an important book and essential read for anyone interested in the history of Polish Jewry, its writers, and inter‐war Poland more broadly. Its relevance goes beyond the classroom and its academic audience. The rise of nationalism worldwide reminds us of the importance of historical debates in the public sphere, as well as our own duty as civic activists.' Oskar Czendze, H-Judaic

'Historical scholarship was a main feature of Polish-Jewish culture between the wars and is one of the main legacies of Polish Jewry. This book, analysing the political and social context and the metahistory of that work, promises to be a landmark piece of scholarship.'
Moshe Rosman, Bar-Ilan University

'Natalia Aleksiun, the author of this informative "collective biography" of a group of Polish Jewish scholars and students who labored early in the twentieth century to advance "the idea that understanding the place that Jews had occupied over many centuries of Polish history would foster legitimacy and acceptance for them in contemporary Poland", deserves credit for resolutely refusing to let the tragedy that was coming overshadow her subjects' story.' Peter Hayes, Austrian History Yearbook

'Natalia Aleksiun's important new book [...] gives voice to these largely unknown historians who may have doubted the efficacy of their enterprise but never their right to undertake it [...] Thanks to Aleksiun's carefully researched and evocative book, we now know their names and their scholarship.'
Nancy Sinkoff, Sources

'Pioneering in many aspects... Aleksiun's book serves as a collective biography of the Jewish historians working in Poland at the turn of the century and during the Second Republic. The author skillfully describes their legacy as well as their complicated and sometimes tragic relations with the Poles.'
Rafal Stobiecki, H-Soz-Kult

'This is an important subject not only for those concerned with the modern history and culture of Polish Jews but also for anyone interested in the relations between academy and community or in the social role of scholars and scholarship.' David Engel, New York University

About the Author

Natalia Aleksiun is Professor of Modern Jewish History at Touro College, Graduate School of Jewish Studies, New York. She is the co-editor, with Antony Polonsky and Brian Horowitz, of 'Writing Jewish History in Eastern Europe' (2016), and has published widely on Polish Jewish issues. Among several prestigious fellowships, she has been a fellow at the Institute of Contemporary History in Munich and at the Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies in Vienna, and the Pearl Resnick Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, US Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington DC.