Synopses & Reviews
In 1949 construction of the planned town of Nowa Huta began on the outskirts of Krakand#243;w, Poland. Its centerpiece, the Lenin Steelworks, promised a secure future for workers and their families. By the 1980s, however, the rise of the Solidarity movement and the ensuing shock therapy program of the early 1990s rapidly transitioned the country from socialism to a market-based economy, and Nowa Huta fell on hard times.
Kinga Pozniak shows how the remarkable political, economic, and social upheavals since the end of the Second World War have profoundly shaped the historical memory of these events in the minds of the people who lived through them. Through extensive interviews, she finds three distinct, generationally based framings of the past. Those who built the town recall the might of local industry and plentiful jobs. The following generation experienced the uprisings of the 1980s and remembers the repression and dysfunction of the socialist system and their resistance to it. Todayand#8217;s generation has no direct experience with either socialism or Solidarity, yet as residents of Nowa Huta they suffer the stigma of lower-class stereotyping and marginalization from other Poles.
Pozniak examines the factors that lead to the rewriting of history and the formation of memory, and the use of history to sustain current political and economic agendas. She finds that despite attempts to create a single, hegemonic vision of the past and a path for the future, these discourses are always contestedand#151;a dynamic that, for the residents of Nowa Huta, allows them to adapt as their personal experience tells them.
Review
andldquo;Filled with compelling stories and reflections from residents of Polandandrsquo;s classic industrial town, this book provides one of the most illuminating accounts yet of changes in work and life from socialism to capitalism. Pozniak rejects the stale framework of andlsquo;nostalgiaandrsquo; and shows us memory as valuable sociological commentary. Her informants show a remarkable, non-ideological common sense that offers profound insights not just about transitions but about contemporary global capitalism. What a wonderful read!andrdquo;
andmdash;David Ost, Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Review
andldquo;Kinga Pozniak presents a fascinating study of generations of memory in Nowa Huta, the enormous planned city built to house tens of thousands of steel workers on the edge of Krakandoacute;w. Intended to be a showcase of proletarian life, the end of communism and global economic changes have left residents with challenges and often conflicting memories. Pozniak lets the people of Nowa Huta speak for themselves and brings their past to life. This important book is thoroughly absorbing, invariably perceptive, and a pleasure to read.andrdquo;
andmdash;John Merriman, Charles Seymour Professor of History, Yale University
Review
andldquo;Nowa Huta is about far more than the socialist company town and the Solidarity resistance that put it on the world map. Kinga Pozniak shows, masterfully, a brick-and-mortar setting in action as it becomes the stuff of negotiated memories and identities amid sweeping political, economic, and societal change. Nowa Huta is a fascinating treatise on andlsquo;sites of memoryandrsquo; everywhere.andrdquo;andmdash;Janine R. Wedel, George Mason University
Review
andldquo;Pozniakandrsquo;s richly detailed and sympathetic portrayal is worthy of a wide audience.andrdquo;
andmdash;Choice
Synopsis
Pozniak shows how the political, economic, and social upheavals in Nowa Huta, Poland since the end of the Second World War have profoundly shaped theand#160; memory of these events in the minds of three generations of people who lived through them.
About the Author
Kinga Pozniak is an anthropologist and visiting scholar at the University of Western Ontario.