History and Politics

A victim of the Nazis, then the communists. Twice a refugee, yet always remaining a committed socialist. In countless ways, Zygmunt Bauman lived the political upheavals of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. He was an actor within them. Bauman’s own lived history informed his politics, which found expression in varying degrees in his sociology, as he wrote extensively on socialism, democracy, bureaucracy, morality, Europe and the Jewish experience.  This volume brings together hitherto unknown or rare pieces by Bauman on the themes of history and politics by drawing upon previously unpublished material from the Bauman Archive at the University of Leeds. A substantial introduction by the editors provides readers with a lucid guide through this material and develops connections to Bauman’s other works.  The second volume in a series of books that will make available the lesser-known writings of one of the most influential social thinkers of our time, History and Politics will be of interest to students and scholars across the arts, humanities and social sciences, and to a wider readership.

Series Introduction page ix Translator’s Note xii Editors’ Introduction: History and Politics in the Sociological Imagination of Zygmunt Bauman xiv 1 Tractate on Bureaucracy (1957) 1 2 On the Political Mechanisms of Bourgeois Democracy (1961) 21 3 The Limitations of ‘Perfect Planning’ (1966) 38 4 The End of Polish Jewry: A Sociological Review (1969) 63 5 At the Crossroads in a World at the Crossroads (c.1970) 75 6 Between State and Society (1973) 80 7 On the Maturation of Socialism (1981) 99 8 Exit Visas and Entry Tickets: Paradoxes of Jewish Assimilation (1988) 109 9 The Holocaust: Fifty Years Later (1994) 141 10 Names of Suffering, Names of Shame (2001) 154 11 Britain after Blair, or Thatcherism Consolidated (2007) 163 12 Panic among the Parasites, or For Whom the Bell Tolls (2010) 178 13 The Haunting Spectre of ‘Westphalian Sovereignty’ (2012) 186 14 Europe’s Adventure: Still Unfinished? (2016) 198 Notes 209 Acknowledgements 226 Index 228