Changes

<b>How did you become interested in writing about interbellum Poland?</b>

The interbellum period was a fascinating age of experiments and extremes. The radical right and radical left had not yet discredited themselves with the crimes of Nazism and Stalinism, and the political horizon appeared to be wide open for all kinds of potential solutions to political, social, and economic problems. Advocates of democracy, authoritarianism, liberalism, socialism, communism, nationalism, fascism, and other ideologies all vied for power in the multitude of small states created by the collapse empires following World War I. In Poland this debate played out very differently than in neighboring countries, especially Germany and the USSR, and I wanted to understand why this was the case.

[[File:Gabriel_Narutowicz.jpg|thumbnail|250px|Gabriel Narutowicz, 1st President of Poland]]

<b>Why was Narutowicz nominated for the presidency? He seems to be an unlikely candidate?</b>

There is a myth, still current today, that it was the national minorities, and specifically the Jewish parties, which played the decisive role in bringing Narutowicz to power. Indeed, this is why he was murdered. In reality, however, his election was the result of a series of accidents. One of the things I realized while researching this book is that seemingly random events can play a crucial role in setting off deeper, long-term processes. For example, if a better-known left wing candidate had been elected to the presidency, the story of the election being a “Jewish conspiracy” would have been more difficult for the nationalists difficult to sell to the public. And this may have had important long-term implications for the development of Polish-Jewish relations in the interwar period and beyond.