Review by Choice Review
Goodwyn, a well-known scholar of American populism, turns his attention to the Solidarity movement in Poland as an extension of the populist view of history. The result is a lengthy examination of Solidarity that produces a revisionist view of the Polish workers' movement. Goodwyn's interpretation of Solidarity is explicitly argumentative with prior treatments on the subject, both on substantive and methodological grounds. In regard to the first, the author engages in a polemic with earlier scholarly interpretations that emphasized the intellectual, elite nature of Solidarity. Instead, this book seeks to validate the working-class origins, class consciousness, and populist ideology of the Solidarity movement. On this point, Goodwyn is on solid ground, as too much has been credited to the intellectuals and not enough to the workers in the Solidarity movement. Goodwyn is less successful in his methodological claims, where he counterpoises his social history methods to the traditional interpretations of mainstream scholars. The reason is that the author does little in terms of original research, relying mainly on secondary sources and on interviews of participants in exile. Greater reliance on the methods advocated would lend further credence to the populist argument. The main premise of the book, however, is valid, and it is an important scholarly contribution to the literature on Solidarity.-J. Bielasiak, Indiana University-Bloomington
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
In August 1980, back when there was a cold war, the West was wondering who that walrus-faced Walesa guy thought he was, thinking he could stand up to the "workers'" government that had shot down every previous sign of opposition. The communist East was less confused by what he represented, yet knowing that talking with guns was passe, it temporarily acquiesced to the formation of Solidarity, a genuine working-class movement that changed Poland and, indeed, the world. Goodwyn digs deep into the intellectual and social currents that merged during that fateful month, whose events were touched off by a classic combination of spontaneity (worker outrage at the firing of a popular colleague) and subterranean trends. The event was truly revolutionary, directly tied to the fall of the Berlin Wall, so one regrets to report that mainly true aficionados of historiography will enjoy Goodwyn's weighty excursions into cause-and-effect. Yet Solidarity makes for an amazing case study of labor history, which interests many an urban library patron. ~--Gilbert Taylor
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
Goodwyn, a professor at Duke University, is a historian of American social movements who has studied Poland's Solidarity movement since 1982. Through interviews with emigres, he traces the development of the organizational skills and consensus of demands among working-class Poles that allowed Solidarity to be successful without input from the Polish intelligentsia. He is highly critical of such authors as Jadwiga Staniszkis ( Poland's Self-Limiting Revolution, LJ 5/1/84) and Jacek Kuron who ascribe the initial success of the August 1980 shipyard strikes to the leadership and assistance of the intelligentsia. Goodwyn states his case convincingly and sheds new light on postwar Polish history. Academic collections and others collecting extensively on Solidarity should add this for its new insights.-- Marcia L. Sprules, Council on Foreign Relations Lib., New York (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Choice Review
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Library Journal Review
