Spanish Carlism and Polish Nationalism: The Borderlands of Europe in the 19th and 20th Centuries

Marek Jan Chodakiewicz · John Radzilowski

Transaction Publishers

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While both Spain and Poland developed genteel cultures grounded in Catholic religion, and experienced periods of growth followed by long decline, it is also the case that large differences in political economy and military structures also existed. Thus while Spain merely declined in power, Poland was partitioned by three powerful and rapacious neighbors. The Catholic and conservative elements that have been strong in both Poland and Spain have often been portrayed as obscure nativist and racist and even fascist. The purpose of this volume is to move beyond the simplistic vision this created about both countries into a more balanced and careful appraisal of tradition and development.

Puncturing this stereotype, Eugene Genovese wryly notes that "as every schoolboy knows, Europe's Catholic Right has consisted of reactionaries who began in the service of residual feudal landowners and ended in support of big capital's exploitation and oppression of the masses. Still, the totalitarian horrors of the twentieth century proved prescient....the warnings of the Catholic traditionalist Right about the consequences of radical democracy and cultural nihilism. These splendid essays, as readable as they are scholarly, launch a long overdue assessment of vital political events."

Maraek Jan Chodakiewicz holds the Koscouszko chair in Polish Studies at the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. He is the author of, among other works, After the Holocaust: Polish-Jewish Conflict in the Wake of World War II and Between Nazis and Soviets: A Case Study of Occupation Politics in Politics, 1939-1947. John Radzilowski did his graduate studies at Arizona State University. He is author and editor of numerous works ranging from Polish to East European history.