Post ASqYC8oTsWpYC9MeX2 by ebrandom@zirk.us
 (DIR) More posts by ebrandom@zirk.us
 (DIR) Post #ASqWjv7X5uDHfJFsaO by CitizenWald@historians.social
       2023-02-19T18:53:25Z
       
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       This was interesting: was in a webinar in which Jan T. Gross spoke about the legacy of his pioneering book, Neighbors (https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691234304/neighbors) some 20 years later.Referring to disputes among #historians, Antony Polonsky referenced the gentry controversy of the 1940s-1960s on the origins of the English Civil War (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storm_over_the_gentry#:~:text=The%20Storm%20over%20the%20gentry,not%20members%20of%20the%20aristocracy) & cited R. H. Tawney's admonition that "an erring colleague is not an Amalekite to be smitten hip & thigh"Fun fact: Tawney fought at the Battle of the Somme
       
 (DIR) Post #ASqYC8oTsWpYC9MeX2 by ebrandom@zirk.us
       2023-02-19T19:09:42Z
       
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       @CitizenWald "to be smitten hip & thigh" means, i want to say, something else today.
       
 (DIR) Post #ASqe2qLdlHjk2qp9hA by vecrumba@historians.social
       2023-02-19T20:15:16Z
       
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       @CitizenWald I attended a seminar with Gross at Columbia shortly after the publication of "Neighbors."  After his presentation, an audience member asked if he thought the Poles would also/still murder all the Jews again today.Ezergailis concluded after researching Jedwabne that Gross sensationalized evidence from tainted Soviet courts. This is not to say that locals were not involved in killing Jews, but that the killing did not happen as Gross contends.
       
 (DIR) Post #ASqjop4iIV4rlebXFY by CitizenWald@historians.social
       2023-02-19T21:19:58Z
       
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       @vecrumba Yes, I follow these things as closely as I can as a nonspecialist reading only the secondary lit (there were similar reactions to his book, Fear). I thought The Neighbors Respond did a good job of showing the range of reactions. Recent articles have elaborated, e.g this one, using additional sources: "Jedwabne before the Court. Poland’s Justice and the Jedwabne Massacre – Investigations and Court Proceedings, 1947–1974," East European Politics and Societies 25 no. 3 (2011): 410-432.
       
 (DIR) Post #ASqjzZpBL3yPedT38y by CitizenWald@historians.social
       2023-02-19T21:21:55Z
       
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       @vecrumba Though actually that is one of the useful aspects of the case: historians are always dealing with tainted or imperfect sources (Nazi documents, records of the inquisition, etc.) that do not present the whole picture, so I find the controversies over Soviet-era trials, the reliability of witness testimony, and the like very useful for teaching students how to think about evidence and the interpretation of sources
       
 (DIR) Post #ASrLsdlM5uqA6FnUMC by vecrumba@historians.social
       2023-02-20T04:26:28Z
       
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       @CitizenWald Re evaluation of evidence, I recommend Ezergailis's 2005 "Nazi/Soviet Disinformation about the Holocaust in Latvia: Daugavas Vanagi—Who Are They?"In the course of his research, Ezergailis became drinking buddies with, even had dinner at the house of, the author (Paulis Ducmanis) of "Daugavas Vanagi—Who Are They", a KGB propaganda tome which was mainstreamed into Holocaust scholarship.
       
 (DIR) Post #ASrNx3wetIlMMyJwNU by CitizenWald@historians.social
       2023-02-20T04:49:40Z
       
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       @vecrumba Thanks for the tip!