Henryk Szlajfer - Böcker

Since it first appeared in 1978, the Polish quarterly Krytyka (Critique) has been a showcase for some of the best writing on politics, sociology, cultural criticism, economics, and history from Poland. Founded by a group of oppositional activists that included Adam Michnik and Jacek Kuron, the journal began as an underground outlet for critical political thinking in the period prior to Solidarity. It survived the communist crackdown on Solidarity in 1981 to become the leading source of democratic thought in the new Poland. Today Krytyka is published ''above ground'' and continues to be the most consistent voice for a modern, democratic, and open Poland. The twenty articles in this volume were chosen by Michael Bernhard, Henryk Szlajfer, and Jan Kofman, the present editor-in-chief of Krytyka. Covering the underground and post-underground years, they introduce the reader to the full range of topics and political views presented by the journal. Taken together these articles provide an excellent overview of the last fifteen turbulent years of Polish history. Contributors are Marek Beylin, Ryszard Bugaj, Anna Bojarska, Krzysztof Jasiewicz, Stanisław Krajewski, Marcin Kula, Jacek Kuroń, Joanna Kurczewska, Adam Michnik, Edmund Mokrzycki, Piotr Ogrodzińki, Jerzy Osiatyński, Jerzy Surdykowski, Andrzej Werner, Włodzimierz Wesołowski, Jan Winiecki, Krzysztof Wolicki, and Józef Życiński.

The main articles of Marian Malowist are collected together for the first time. Malowist, who is one of the major economic historians of the twentieth century, is also a much neglected one. So most scholars have been missing out on one of the most fertile and cultivated minds who have written on the central issue of our times.

Amsterdam Jews appeared up to the mid-17th century as Braudelian "great Jewish merchants." However, the New Christians, heretic judaizantes in the eyes of the Inquisition, dispersed around the world, were equally crucial. Their religious identities were fluid, but at the same time they and the "new Jews" from Amsterdam formed a part of economic modernity epitomized by the rebellious Netherlands and the developing Atlantic economy. At the height of their influence they played a pivotal, albeit controversial, role in the rising slave trade. The disappearance of New Christians in Latin America had to be contextualised with inquisitorial persecutions and growing competition in mind.In this important study, Henryk Szlajfer traces the impact of both groups.