From cotton and smoke : Lodz--industrial city and discourses of asynchronous modernity 1897-1994 / Agata Zysiak, Kamil Smiechowski, Kamil Piskala, Wiktor Marzec, Kaja Kazmierska, Jacek Burski.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 277-298) and index.

Acknowledgments -- List of tables -- List of illustrations -- Introduction : There is a city in Europe -- Translocal modernity -- Printed modernity -- Journey through a century -- The structure and content of the modern discourse -- The beginnings : entrance to the industrial world 1897-1914 : The promised land in the mud -- From othering to condemnation -- Re-imaging the city -- Harmonious modernity and urban self-assertion -- The dream of a proper infrastructure -- Calling for institutions -- Inventing welfare -- Educating the masses -- Envisioning urban citizenship -- Ethnicizing the economy -- Forging modernity : conclusion -- The interwar : democratic politics and modern city between two world wars 1918-1923 : The decline of the "Polish Manchester" -- The years of war : the economic collapse and political liberalization -- Democratic politics and the press in the independent state -- From class warfare to the modernization program -- Visions of a metropolis and municipal socialism -- Rhetorical shifts -- Against the "philosophy of the crowd" -- National capitalism -- Antisemitism as social critique -- From antisemitism to political mobilization -- Class or nation? -- The crisis of modernization and European Civil War : conclusion -- The postwar : social justice for the proletarian city? 1945-1949 : New reality -- New worldwide order -- Postwar Cinderella -- New scope of press influence -- Tempting visions in hard times -- Rhetoric of appeasement -- Patterns of legitimization : dark past and bright future -- Working classes and everyday life -- Toward a functionalist city -- Osiedle and beyond -- Planning -- Metropolitan dreams and a wake-up call -- From modest modernization to a socialist city : conclusion -- Transition : the post-industrial orphan in neoliberal Poland 1989-1994 : Re-inventing the city -- The socialist-style American dream -- Shock and helplessness -- New press and new politics -- The market as a principle of social organization -- City in crisis -- Projects of breaking through -- Bringing capitalism back in : conclusion -- A city lost in space in a country lost in time : conclusion : Struggling with the modern challenge -- City from cotton and smoke -- The press is back in town -- Narratives of modernity -- Methodological appendix -- Primary sources covered -- Reference list -- Index of names -- List of contributors.

This book considers ��od�z as the capital of the Polish nineteenth century industry, and discusses the history of this former textile hub, which now finds itself in central Poland, as one of the cities struggling with modern change in Eastern Europe. The authors boldly challenge the romantic and noble-based Polish cultural imaginary, offering instead a revolutionary path to understanding confrontation with modernity in the region. The book examines local press debates during four pivotal periods, each of which stimulated self-reflection on the idea of the modern city: Rapid industrial growth in the tsarist borderlands; State crafting after WWI; Socialist restructuring after 1945; Transition and deindustrialization after 1989. Together these insights constitute a multifaceted portrait of twentieth-century urban experience beyond the metropolis, in different historical contexts. This innovative, interdisciplinary work deftly integrates urban and cultural history, historical sociology and discourse research. It will be of great value to Polish and Jewish studies specialists, as well as those in the field of Eastern European and Slavic studies. The book also addresses core intellectual debates within urban studies, modernity studies, and historical discourse analysis worldwide. -- Provided by publisher.