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together hitherto unknown or rare pieces by Bauman on the themes of history and politics by drawing upon previously unpublished material from the Bauman Archive at the University of Leeds.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

“We live in an age when in every decade one day occurs – such as 9/11 or 24 February – after which matters taken firmly for granted yesterday are abruptly swept away. It is the rare sociological genius of Zygmunt Bauman that helps us to make critical sense of such liquidity.”
Claus Offe

“Among émigré intellectuals, ranging from the Frankfurt School to Hannah Arendt and Isaiah Berlin, Zygmunt Bauman stands out for his intimate knowledge and experience of 'really existing socialisms' and their demise after 1989. In this new essay collection, drawn from his archives, we experience the sizzling quality of his insights and the beauty of his prose as he reflects on bureaucracy, class vs status, the new anti-Semitism and much else.”
Seyla Benhabib

“The three volumes of Selected Writings offer a backbone to all this work of scholarship and enthusiasm. A remarkable achievement, indeed, both by the author, and by his editors and interpreters. A valuable resource for research, as well as a companion for a dip, a chance to see that mind at work once more: the wanderer above the sea of fog, then and now.”
Peter Beilharz, Thesis Eleven Zygmunt Bauman (1925-2017) was Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Leeds.