The French revolution should be conceived in its entirety: not as a coup by reformist elites or a retrogressive people’s movement, but a phenomenon transforming social mentality by means of opposing and related factors such as fear and violence, hope etc. The scope of influence of revolutionary mentality was considerable, especially considering more than just those social circles directly involved in the revolution.

In present paper Immanuel Wallerstein is discussing a necessary change of the attitudes of historians under influence to the proposal of representatives of “new science”.

This essay is constructed of two parts: the first is a historiographical sketch of several theories concerning nationalism and gender; the second part puts some of these theories into practice in interpreting an article from a fin-desiècle Polish illustrated weekly magazine.

This article traces the process by which Ricoeur establishes the character of the discipline of history as a form of narration which expresses the relation between the experience of ‘belonging-to-history’ and the capacity to place this experience at a distance and, thereby, to experience it reflectively.

In the article the Author presents the typology of alternative history and in its light he characterises the historical writings of Jerzy Łojek, in particular his approach towards history of November Uprising, 1830–1831.

The Author defines the strategy of cultural identity of young Canadians of Polish origin. His work is based on questionnaires carried out within the group.

The article is a critical analysis of the renowned book by D.J. Goldhagen Hitler’s Willing Executioners. Using comparative historiography the author of the article reconstructs Goldhagen’s narrative model and compares it with the achieved cognitive effects. In doing so, he demonstrates weaknesses both of the model and of the effects.

The aim of this article is substantially devoted to explore which factors have, and have had. an impact on the way history is actually explained. The main topics are:

1. The fundamental passage from a monological interpretation of history to a “plurality of voices”, linked to post-modern culture. The complex debate about Post-modern culture is significantly marked by the disappearance of the monology (a great cultural uniting discourse) and by the emergence of different interpretations and visions. This process has a clear influence on the way history is now explained and the way the “official history” has been substituted by different narratives.

2. The meaning of collective memory. The role of collective memory has acquired a renewed significance today, scholars belonging to different disciplines have underlined its importance in the nation-building processes or in the re-affirmation of identity. For example, ten years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the passing of time is producing peculiar interpretations and alterations about the recent history of the former socialist countries. The history of these new democratic societies has been re-written, not in the oriented and “orwellian” way. followed by the previous regimes, but through the subtle, complex and spontaneous work of the collective memory.

3. The political and ideological action oriented to “create” or to “erase” historical events, which can be functional to the elites legitimisation. Elites need a symbolic background to support their political action and to maintain the consensus of society. They are able both to create new myths or partisan visions that can undermine the legitimacy of a political system and to support real democratic societies.