Catholics on the Barricades: Poland, France, and "Revolution," 1891-1956 (Yale-Hoover Series on Authoritarian Regimes)

This book tells a sweeping story of how Catholics from France and Poland wrestled throughout the first half of the twentieth century with a series of earth-shattering challenges to their worldview: the Industrial Revolution, the displacement of dynastic empires by democratic republics, republicanism’s subsequent collapse between the world wars, occupation and genocide by Nazi Germany, and the birth and expansion of the Soviet Union and its Communist proxy regimes. Faced with the ascendancy of both nationalism and Marxism across Europe, Catholic intellectuals found common ground in the pursuit of a just society on earth. __Catholics on the Barricades__ reconstructs the projects forged across multiple generations, spanning from the 1890s through the 1950s. Declaring Catholic “revolution,” France’s and Poland’s Catholic intellectuals ended up serving twin evils: first exclusionary (or integral) nationalism, and then Stalinism as well. To explain this paradox, __Catholics on the Barricades__ offers a conceptual history of “revolution.” After World War II, anti-fascist bona fides led these intellectuals to give the benefit of the doubt to Communist regimes in Eastern Europe—if not actively involve themselves in those regimes’ construction. In addition to peace and personhood, French and Polish Catholics were united by a shared fear of Germany. Their anti-Germanism built on, and preserved, long-standing anti-Semitism. Catholic “revolution,” then, was poisoned from the outset. And yet, its legacy ultimately inspired a turn to dialogue and solidarity, which—fleeting though it has proven to be—helped to bring down the Iron Curtain. In Poland in the 1940s and '50s, a new kind of Catholic intended to remake European social and political life—not with guns, but French philosophy

This collective intellectual biography examines generations of deeply religious thinkers whose faith drove them into public life, including Karol WojtyŠ‚a, future Pope John Paul II, and Tadeusz Mazowiecki, the future prime minister who would dismantle Poland’s Communist regime.

Seeking to change the way we understand the Catholic Church, World War II, the Cold War, and communism, this study centers on the idea of “revolution.” It examines two crucial countries, France and Poland, while challenging conventional wisdom among historians and introducing innovations in periodization, geography, and methodology. Why has much of Eastern Europe gone back down the road of exclusionary nationalism and religious prejudice since the end of the Cold War? Piotr H. Kosicki helps to understand the crises of contemporary Europe by examining the intellectual world of Roman Catholicism in Poland and France between the Church's declaration of war on socialism in 1891 and the demise of Stalinism in 1956. In Poland in the 1940s and '50s, a new kind of Catholic intended to remake European social and political life—not with guns, but French philosophy This collective intellectual biography examines generations of deeply religious thinkers whose faith drove them into public life, including Karol Wojtyla, future Pope John Paul II, and Tadeusz Mazowiecki, the future prime minister who would dismantle Poland's Communist regime. Seeking to change the way we understand the Catholic Church, World War II, the Cold War, and communism, this study centers on the idea of "revolution." It examines two crucial countries, France and Poland, while challenging conventional wisdom among historians and introducing innovations in periodization, geography, and methodology. Why has much of Eastern Europe gone back down the road of exclusionary nationalism and religious prejudice since the end of the Cold War? Piotr H. Kosicki helps to understand the crises of contemporary Europe by examining the intellectual world of Roman Catholicism in Poland and France between the Church's declaration of war on socialism in 1891 and the demise of Stalinism in 1956. In Poland in the 1940s and '50s, a new kind of Catholic intended to remake European social and political life—not with guns, but French philosophy This collective intellectual biography examines generations of deeply religious thinkers whose faith drove them into public life, including Karol Wojtyła, future Pope John Paul II, and Tadeusz Mazowiecki, the future prime minister who would dismantle Poland’s Communist regime. Seeking to change the way we understand the Catholic Church, World War II, the Cold War, and communism, this study centers on the idea of “revolution.” It examines two crucial countries, France and Poland, while challenging conventional wisdom among historians and introducing innovations in periodization, geography, and methodology. Why has much of Eastern Europe gone back down the road of exclusionary nationalism and religious prejudice since the end of the Cold War? Piotr H. Kosicki helps to understand the crises of contemporary Europe by examining the intellectual world of Roman Catholicism in Poland and France between the Church's declaration of war on socialism in 1891 and the demise of Stalinism in 1956. "This collective intellectual biography examines generations of deeply religious thinkers whose faith drove them into public life, including Karol Wojtyla, future Pope John Paul II, and Tadeusz Mazowiecki, the future prime minister who would dismantle Poland's Communist regime. Seeking to change the way we understand the Catholic Church, World War II, the Cold War, and communism, this study centers on the idea of revolution. It examines two crucial countries, France and Poland, while challenging conventional wisdom among historians and introducing innovations in periodization, geography, and methodology. Why has much of Eastern Europe gone back down the road of exclusionary nationalism and religious prejudice since the end of the Cold War? Piotr H. Kosicki helps to understand the crises of contemporary Europe by examining the intellectual world of Roman Catholicism in Poland and France between the Church's declaration of war on socialism in 1891 and the demise of Stalinism in 1956." -- Book jacket This text tells a sweeping story of how Catholics from France and Poland wrestled throughout the first half of the twentieth century with a series of earth-shattering challenges to their worldview: the Industrial Revolution, the displacement of dynastic empires by democratic republics, republicanism's subsequent collapse between the world wars, occupation and genocide by Nazi Germany, and the birth and expansion of the Soviet Union and its Communist proxy regimes Piotr H. Kosicki. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.