Marian Małowist on History and Historians
This chapter looks at an interview with Professor Marian Małowist, which was conducted by medieval historian, Bronisław Geremek; historian of Africa, Michał Tymowski; economist and sociologist, Henryk Szlajfer; and historian of Latin America, Ryszard Stemplowski. Marian Małowist was a prominent scholar of the history of Europe, Africa, and Asia, and of the long period from the thirteenth to the seventeenth century, and the mentor of many prominent historians in Poland. Among Polish historians, he was one of the best known in the wider scholarly world. Born in 1909, he studied history at the University of Warsaw, where he wrote his doctorate and habilitation thesis. From 1949, he was a full professor at that university and also for a time worked in the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences. In the interview, Małowist discusses antisemitism; the relation between poverty and national structure; communism; and his experience at the University of Warsaw.