About us

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Przegląd Polityczny has been one of the most important Polish journals dedicated to culture and politics since 1989. Some believe that it is a “laboratory of ideas” where different ways of thinking may meet; others that it creates a space of dialog where high culture meets popular culture, tradition meets change, and Poland meets Europe; still others think that liberty, politics, and history have become its multi-faceted mission. All those opinions adequately define the identity of Przegląd Polityczny which has been published for more than thirty years now.

Przegląd Polityczny has always propagated the ideas of liberty and civic culture, i.e. it has supported democratic political culture. It favors Europe, free economy, and the rule of law. It combines genuine search for truth with interest in the history of the idea of liberty and common good.

The goal of Przegląd Polityczny is to initiate debates on the problems and developments in Poland, Europe, and the whole world, which bring together the present and the past. We always approach them in a double perspective of culture and politics, since we believe that these two are the best instruments by means of which we can think about reality. We teach – both ourselves and others – openness and respect for other cultures. We have been translating texts and explaining the characteristics of our time to understand it better. In this respect, Przegląd Polityczny is a border zone where authors and readers can meet each other. Thanks to initiatives such as ours, the culture of any society may become stronger, and its participants may be better equipped to meet the representatives of other cultures.

History

So far 135 numbers of Przegląd Polityczny have been published. More than 900 authors have filled with their texts almost 25 000 A4 printed pages. Also the list of topics addressed by Przegląd Polityczny is long. In the beginning, it presented the ideas of Raymond Aron, Friedrich von Hayek, and the German “Ordoliberals”, whose philosophical and political works inspired the editors in the 1980s. Since 1990, Przegląd Polityczny has published – among others – the following thematic issues:

  • Poland and Germany in the New Europe (PP no. 24/1994)
  • Once There Was Gdańsk (PP no. 29/1995)
  • Intellectual History of Europe (PP no. 33/34 – 1997)
  • Shalamov, Communism, Russia (PP no. 42/1999)
  • Magic Trieste (PP no. 44/2000)
  • Isaiah Berlin. A Fox That Wanted to Be a Hedgehog (PP no. 54/2002)
  • Dispute about the World. The Future Society. Drucker’s Report (PP no. 62/63 – 2003)
  • Tocqueville’s Splendor. How to Read the Author of Democracy in America Today (PP no. 71/2005)
  • European Revolutions 1789, 1989… (PP no. 93/2009)
  • Long Yingtai. Understanding Today’s China (PP no. 108/2011)
  • The Peloponnesian War Today (PP no. 113/2012)
  • The Great War 1914-1918 (PP no. 125/2014)
  • Hannah Arendt. A Biography of Thought (PP no.133/134-2015)

 

Przegląd Polityczny – Mission Statement

Society which tends to understand itself less and less, and is occupied with communication rather than reflection, needs places where reflection is communicated. In the world where politics is usually separated from ideas, either for lack of time or little distance, journals such as Przegląd Polityczny, which provide common space for commentators, philosophers, historians, and analysts, are needed. The point is not to tell politicians what they should do, but to explain to them what they are doing; not to tell citizens how they should think, but to help them make reasonable choices.

Przegląd Polityczny is a journal of ideas. From the beginning, we have been preoccupied with the public sphere. We are one of the last continuing periodicals initiated in the underground, published since 1983. The common denominator of the texts we print is a critical approach to reality. It has proved attractive to outstanding writers, publicists, and critics or historians of ideas and philosophers. One may say that as an intellectual journal, Przegląd Polityczny has become one of the most important periodicals in Poland, the voice of an intellectual middle ground.

 

 

 

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