Poland and the Making of Transnational Social Science: Eastern Europe, the Us and the Wilsonian Moment

Tracing interactions between Eastern European social scientists and Anglo-American internationalists in the interwar period, this book shows how politics served as a productive force in the spread of knowledge and research from the local to the global stage.

Following individual scholars embarking upon research on the key questions of the day, minorities, national mobilization and migration, this book shows how their projects were instigated and partly funded by American internationalists who believed that Eastern Europe was an important arena for observing transformations typical of interwar Europe. Simultaneously, the Pilsudski regime's growing interest in the social sciences led to investment in state-run think tanks that, in turn, hired scientists as experts. Poland and the Making of Transnational Social Science argues that this complex encounter was essential in transforming both scientific and political thought to encompass transnational currents. After some of these scientists fled to British colonies and the United States, they formulated concepts concerning national indifference, exclusion, development, and decolonization. Though these concepts would not circulate broadly for another few decades, recognizing their emergence in this context helps us anchor the later discourses within a longer history of internationalism and colonialism.