In Search of Lost Meaning

by Michnik, Adam; Gross, Irena Grudzinska; Czarny, Roman S.; Havel, Vaclav; Darnton, John

• ISBN13: 9780520269231
• ISBN10: 0520269233
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-05-23
• Publisher: Univ of California Pr

Summary

In this new collection of essays, Adam Michnik--one of Europe's leading dissidents--traces the post-cold-war transformation of Eastern Europe. He writes again in opposition, this time to post-communist elites and European Union bureaucrats. Composed of history, memoir, and political critique,In Search of Lost Meaningshines a spotlight on the changes in Poland and the Eastern Bloc in the post-1989 years. Michnik asks what mistakes were made and what we can learn from climactic events in Poland's past, in its literature, and the histories of Central and Eastern Europe. He calls attention to pivotal moments in which central figures like Lech Walesa and political movements like Solidarity came into being, how these movements attempted to uproot the past, and how subsequent events have ultimately challenged Poland's enduring ethical legacy of morality and liberalism. Reflecting on the most recent efforts to grapple with Poland's Jewish history and residual guilt, this profoundly important book throws light not only on recent events, but also on the thinking of one of their most important protagonists.

Table of Contents

Foreword: About Michnik	p. vii
Editor's Note	p. ix
Introduction	p. xv
Anniversaries
Poland at the Turning Point: Fifteen Years of Transformation, Fifteen Years of Gazeta Wyborcza	p. 3
In Search of Lost Meaning: The Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of the Solidarity Movement	p. 22
Rage and Shame, Sadness and Pride: The Twenty-Fourth Anniversary of the Imposition of Martial Law	p. 37
The Bitter Memory of Budapest: The Fiftieth Anniversary of the Budapest Uprising	p. 59
The Work of Hatred
The Sadness of the Gutter	p. 75
Accusers and Traitors	p. 98
The Accusers and the Noncivic Acts	p. 114
A Wound upon Adam Mickiewicz's Brow	p. 134
The Complex Polish-Jewish Matters
The Kielce Pogrom: Two Examinations of Conscience	p. 173
The Shock of Jedwabne	p. 204
Glossary: Guide to Events and People	p. 213
Index	p. 217
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