From the author -- Marked by the past -- A sociologist and a witness to history -- 1939 : war breaks out -- Shut off from life : the Lodz ghetto -- Warsaw in the 1940s : the ghetto and the "Aryan side" -- The Warsaw ghetto -- Occupied Warsaw -- Szmalcownicy and heroes -- First decade of communism -- Poland or France? -- My universities -- 1956 : workers' councils, Gozdzik, and Gomulka -- First steps in academia -- Workers' councils : the case of Zeran -- Yugoslavia : oddities and infatuation -- 1968 and the aftermath : excluded from society -- Forced into unemployment -- Emotional aspect of the march purges -- GUS : the job I didn't want and the research I dreamed of -- Up against the censors -- Varna congress : changing Soviet research priorities -- Postdoctoral qualification -- Martial law : signs of social disintegration -- Institute of crime problems : solidarity and the people in power -- Martial law and the ghosts of the war -- The state of society as reflected by the suicide rate -- Polish Academy of Sciences and adventures with research -- An unusual grant -- Empirical research in a free Poland : being part of the research community -- Democratic Poland : winners and losers -- 1989 : the round table -- The costs of transition -- Social disorganization and corruption -- Corruption : personal experience -- Bribing the Mexican police -- Greasing palms in a communist hospital -- Greasing palms in a postcommunist hospital : pay or perish -- A view from abroad : food for thought -- On the go : by rail and air -- Airport adventure : hijack attempt -- In France -- In Ukraine -- In China -- In Vietnam -- In Japan -- In Cuba -- In Israel -- about Poland -- In Italy -- In Germany -- America : the Polish perspective -- Ethnic hodgepodge : a politically correct family -- Facts of life : cops and robbers, lost and found, and the pernicious -- Effects of too much alcohol -- Closing reflections : the world has changed
Notes
"Originally published in 2009 by Oficyna Naukowa"--Title page verso
