Post-war Lower Silesia was intended by the communists to be a "laboratory of socialism". Hence, they developed and pursued a special policy towards the Catholic Church. The book highlights the specificity of the pastoral ministry provided by the successive rulers of the Church in Wrocław (Karol Milik, Kazimierz Lagosz, Cardinal Bolesław Kominek) in the realities of the communist state. It shows the role of Cardinal Kominek who was persecuted for his attitude towards communists, his activity in the Polish Episcopate and in the forum of the universal Church. Moreover, it presents the system of repression aimed at diocesan clergy and religious orders and limiting theological education. With the objective of secularising the Lower Silesian society, the communists put emphasis on promoting their ideology, especially among the young generation. The Church responded with speeches by hierarchs condemning these activities and with pastoral initiatives to slow down the process.

Post-war Lower Silesia was intended by the communists to be a "laboratory of socialism". Hence, they developed and pursued a special policy towards the Catholic Church. The book highlights the specificity of the pastoral ministry provided by the successive rulers of the Church in Wrocław (Karol Milik, Kazimierz Lagosz, Cardinal Bolesław Kominek) in the realities of the communist state. It shows the role of Cardinal Kominek who was persecuted for his attitude towards communists, his activity in the Polish Episcopate and in the forum of the universal Church. Moreover, it presents the system of repression aimed at diocesan clergy and religious orders and limiting theological education. With the objective of secularising the Lower Silesian society, the communists put emphasis on promoting their ideology, especially among the young generation. The Church responded with speeches by hierarchs condemning these activities and with pastoral initiatives to slow down the process.

The eighth-century English missionary and church reformer Boniface was a highly influential figure in early medieval Europe. His career in what is now Germany, France, and the Netherlands is attested in an exceptional number of textual sources: a correspondence of 150 letters, Latin poetry, church council records, and other documents. Numerous saints’ lives and modern devotional materials further reveal how he was and is remembered by the religious communities that claim him as a foundational figure. This volume comprises the latest scholarship on Boniface and his fellow missionaries, examining the written materials associated with Boniface, his impacts on the regions of Europe where he worked (Hessia, Thuringia, Bavaria, Frisia, and Francia), and the development of his cult in the Middle Ages and today. Contributors: Michel Aaij, John-Henry Clay, Michael Glatthaar, Shannon Godlove, Leanne Good, Petra Kehl, Felice Lifshitz, Rob Meens, Michael Edward Moore, Marco Mostert, James Palmer, Janneke Raaijmakers, Rudolf Schieffer, Emily Thornbury, Siegfried Weichlein, and Barbara Yorke.

A century-long struggle to make a borderland population into loyal Germans or Poles drove nationalist activists to radical measures.

Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize • Winner of the Council on Foreign Relations Arthur Ross Book Award • One of the New York Times' Ten Best Books of the Year “Impressive . . . Mr. Judt writes with enormous authority.” —The Wall Street Journal “Magisterial . . . It is, without a doubt, the most comprehensive, authoritative, and yes, readable postwar history.” —The Boston Globe Almost a decade in the making, this much-anticipated grand history of postwar Europe from one of the world's most esteemed historians and intellectuals is a singular achievement. Postwar is the first modern history that covers all of Europe, both east and west, drawing on research in six languages to sweep readers through thirty-four nations and sixty years of political and cultural change-all in one integrated, enthralling narrative. Both intellectually ambitious and compelling to read, thrilling in its scope and delightful in its small details, Postwar is a rare joy. Judt's book, Ill Fares the Land, republished in 2021 featuring a new preface by bestselling author of Between the World and Me and The Water Dancer, Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Vols. 17-18 cover 1775-1914.

How do peasants come to think of themselves as members of a nation? The widely accepted argument is that national sentiment originates among intellectuals or urban middle classes, then "trickles down" to the working class and peasants. Keely Stauter-Halsted argues that such models overlook the independent contribution of peasant societies. She explores the complex case of the Polish peasants of Austrian Galicia, from the 1848 emancipation of the serfs to the eve of the First World War. In the years immediately after emancipation, Polish-speaking peasants were more apt to identify with the Austrian Emperor and the Catholic Church than with their Polish lords or the middle classes of the Galician capital, Cracow. Yet by the end of the century, Polish-speaking peasants would cheer, "Long live Poland" and celebrate the centennial of the peasant-fueled insurrection in defense of Polish independence. The explanation for this shift, Stauter-Halsted says, is the symbiosis that developed between peasant elites and upper-class reformers. She reconstructs this difficult, halting process, paying particular attention to public life and conflicts within the rural communities themselves. The author's approach is at once comparative and interdisciplinary, drawing from literature on national identity formation in Latin America, China, and Western Europe. The Nation in the Village combines anthropology, sociology, and literary criticism with economic, social, cultural, and political history.