Początek końca historii. Tradycje polityczne w XIX wieku

Instructive and competent, and, what is more, a highly readable essayistic story by a historian of ideas about the nineteenth century: the genetic period for the ideological character of contemporary Europe. This is a voice in the discussion on the topic of the identity of the old continent, the crisis it is experiencing and the chances of overcoming it. The eponymous play on words – “the beginning of the end” – refers to the observation that before our very eyes we are witnessing the exhaustion of a manner of thinking and acting, embodying the conviction of the end of history, brought to the attention of a broader public three decades ago by Francis Fukuyama.

A good idea of the view of the century presented in the  book can be gained from the  metaphors Ian Bostridge coined of those times: “volcanic” (the  Napoleonic era) and “winter” (the  post-Napoleonic period). The “volcanic” period of the first half of the century consists in the revivalism and prometheanism transforming the conditions of life in the spirit of what was best in the heritage of the French Revolution propagated by Napoleon. The “winter”, a metaphor taken from Schubert’s Winter Journey, was the spread of nihilism, manifested in the loss of faith in the ideal of emancipation of the individual in the spirit of an individualistic understanding of freedom.

A parallel current of reflection within the book is the Polish phenomenon of a nation modernising itself despite having lost its statehood as a result of the so-called partitions of the state toward the end of the eighteenth century. Cichocki discusses the views of the greatest Polish thinkers as well as the efforts undertaken in the nineteenth century by Poles in the new political circumstances – efforts that prepared them for the rebirth of the Polish state in a new form. The difficult experiences during the times of the loss of statehood are portrayed as a resource of political culture: invaluable in the political changes that are currently taking place. This resource includes a wealth of models of a nation managing itself in troubled times.