Why Georg Giese? (Hans Holbein, c. 1532)

New book publication, fact+fiction!

Justyna Wubs-Mrozewicz

Rumours have been circulating about an unusual publication...

We can confirm now: our sources made it to a book which combines fact and fiction: a historical detective for all aged 10-110, curious about history and archival research!

The book can be bough internationally here in the English version, and in the Polish version. It is also on sale in Poland, in both versions.

A personal story behind it by author and project PI Justyna Wubs-Mrozewicz.

Cover text:

‘Can old buildings, documents and objects, music and art take us back in time? Or, maybe, can the past and the present exist at the same time?’
If you are a reader aged 10 to 110 and you are interested in history and adventure, this book about the seven Renaissance ships is for you! It tells the remarkable tale of a group of Dutch ships which arrived in Gdańsk in 1564, and shows how their story was rediscovered in the 21st century. What secrets lie hidden in the pages of a long-forgotten court case? How do historians work in archives and why are footnotes so useful? Who were the teenagers Gabriel and Marysia? Fact and fiction, and the 16th and 21st centuries, are woven together in this book about the magical side of history.
Justyna Wubs-Mrozewicz is Associate Professor of History at the University of Amsterdam. She enjoys uncovering historical secrets of all kinds.

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History in conflict webinar: introducing the modern edition

Justyna Wubs-Mrozewicz

Attention! We’re talking about history here, and it’s important. This might be the summary of the online webinar on #historyinconflict held on June, 25th (2022), where we addressed the role of bringing up historical narratives in conflicts in the 19th-21st centuries. It was the third instalment in a series of webinars, after meetings on medieval and early modern conflicts. Now our attention has turned to modern conflicts: for instance, WWII in the Netherlands, border struggles in South America from the 19th century onwards, tensions related to religious reforms in India in the 20th century, and the perceptions of the past in post-WWII Poland or Vietnam. The insights we gained from the fascinating papers that were presented, and the discussions that followed, show that references to the past have clearly gained a foothold as powerful and versatile tools. And that they grab our attention and often create controversy.

Historians like Margaret Macmillan and Timothy Snyder have rightly pointed out that history has been used, abused and re-used many times over, sometimes in a cyclical fashion. The editors of the newly minted Journal of Applied History underline that our current engagement with the past – especially during conflicts – is a topic that in fact more than merits our attention:  ‘The accumulation of crises in the new millennium, as well as the omnipresence of the instrumentalisation—and abuse—of history and historical claims in a highly polarised political climate may have increased public awareness of the value of historical thinking for the present, but these developments have also made such awareness more urgent.’ A crucial issue here is the role of professional historians: what part have they played in conflicts in the 20th century, and what role are they playing or should they play now? Is debunking myths enough, or should the spokespeople of the past be more activist or creative? [....]

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