Henryk Szlajfer – författare

A critical reassessment of the life and work of the path-breaking economic historian Werner Sombart.Sombart is perhaps best known as the inventor of the concept of Spätkapitalismus (Late Capitalism) and a follower (for some time) of Hitler’s National Socialism. Yet he is still a forgotten major figure in German social science. As the author of a widely-read exposition on socialism and social movements (trade unions), the monumental Der moderne Kapitalismus, and a controversial monograph on the role of the Jews in the birth of capitalism, he is shown in this book in the broader context of the disputes in the first decades of the 20th century involving Marxists, German Jews and his friend Max Weber.

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.

In Economic Nationalism and Globalization: Lessons from Latin America and Central Europe Henryk Szlajfer offers, against the background of developments in Latin America (mainly Brazil) and Central Europe (mainly Poland) in times of first globalization from late 19th century until late 1930s, a reinterpretation of economic nationalism both as an analytical category and historical experience. Also, critically explored are attempts at proto-economic nationalism in early 19th century Poland and Latin America as well as links between economic nationalism and the emergence of integral political nationalism and authoritarianism. Economic nationalism is interpreted as historically significant world-wide phenomenon intimately linked with the birth, development and crisis of capitalist modernity and as a response to underdevelopment under first globalization. Continuity of economic nationalism under present globalization is suggested.