Polska droga ku wolności. Spojrzenie niemieckiego publicysty

In 'Polish road to freedom' Lothar Nettelmann, a German journalist involved in the process of Polish-German reconciliation, describes the events of 1980-1981, the critical events in the modern history of Poland. They serve as the background to the analysis of the Polish society or, more precisely, two groups of the Polish society, the workers and the intellectuals, who gave direction to social and political transformations in the 1980s and 1990s. Nettelmann's book combines historical and sociological analyses. It consists of two parts: an extensive historical study and a discussion of the results of a survey conducted by the author in Poland. The author is looking for the sources of the Polish national mentality in Poland's complex history - in the democracy of the gentry, partitions, Nazi occupation and communism. He tries to describe the attitude of Poles to the state and nation, its genesis and condition at the turn of 1980. The work is worth reading also from the methodological point of view. In it, the author has referred to the concepts of Norbert Elias, a German historian and sociologists, whose theory is an attempt at melting the histories of individuals with the great social history. The reader will no doubt find the point of view expressed by a friendly outsider extremely interesting.