This volume considers the various interactions between the culture of the book and politics in Polish history. Each of the fourteen authors deals with a different topic, chronologically starting with the beginnings of the early Piast monarchy in the 10th century up to contemporary times: for instance, E. Potkowski discusses the political ambitions of Duke Mieszko I and his descendants with regard to the introduction of early writing and reading in Poland; A. Kamler analyses the attitude of the Jagiellonian dynasty in the 1500s towards books and education; and D. Jarosz traces the changing approach of the communists towards book production and the promotion of readership in their attempts to persuade Polish society to accept their ideology.

Jacek Soszyński is Professor of History at the University of Warsaw. His field of expertise is medieval historiography and the history of ideas during the Middle Ages. Agnieszka Chamera-Nowak is Assistant Professor of Library Science at the University of Warsaw. She specialises in the history of the book in the early modern period and the twentieth century.