Guide to the Florian Znaniecki Papers 1918-1968


Search this Finding Aid





Table of Contents

• Acknowledgments
• Descriptive Summary
• Information on Use
• Access
• Citation
• Biographical Note
• Scope Note
• Related Resources
• Subject Headings
• INVENTORY
• Series I: Biographical
• Series II: CORRESPONDENCE
• Series III: Social Relations and Social Roles (1965)
• Series IV. Other Writings
  • Subseries 1: Published Articles
  • Subseries 2: "The Social Role of the University Student"
• Series V. Notes and Bibliographies
• Series VI: Addenda
  • Subseries 1: Correspondence
  • Subseries 2: Manuscripts

Acknowledgments

Descriptive Summary

Information on Use

Access

No restrictions.

Citation

When quoting material from this collection, the preferred citation is: Znaniecki, Florian. Papers, [Box #, Folder #], Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library

Biographical Note

Florian Witold Znaniecki (1882--1958) was born in Swiatniki, Poland, of mixed French, Prussian, Saxon, and Polish ancestry. His early education by tutor and in the Czestochowa Gymnasium was supplemented by extensive private reading in Spanish and English poetry. After being expelled from the University of Warsaw in 1903 for participation in a student movement considered threatening by the Russian authorities, he traveled widely in Switzerland, France, and Italy, served as the editor of Nice Illustre, and enlisted briefly in the French Foreign Legion. In 1905, he resumed his education at the University of Geneva (M.A., 1907), the University of Zurich, the Sorbonne, and at the University of Cracow, where he received a Ph.D. in 1909 for his thesis on "The Problem of Values in Philosophy." Prevented by his political record from obtaining an academic appointment at any Polish university, Znaniecki accepted a position as director of the Emigrants' Protective Association in Warsaw and became increasingly absorbed in questions of a sociological character. When W. I. Thomas, on a trip to Europe in 1913, casually suggested that Znaniecki come to the University of Chicago and assist him with research on Polish immigration to America, Znaniecki seized the opportunity to leave the Association and devote himself to his new field of interest. Arriving in Chicago in 1914, Znaniecki collaborated with Thomas, a Professor of Sociology at the University, on the investigation that resulted in the publication of The Polish Peasant in Europe and America in five volumes from 1918 to 1920. Through the intervention of Thomas,

Znaniecki was also appointed Lecturer on Polish History and Institutions in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology in 1917. Their intellectual partnership came to an abrupt end, however, when Thomas was dismissed from the University in 1918 under a cloud of personal scandal, and Znaniecki was dropped from the faculty a year later for budgetary reasons despite Albion Small's efforts to save his position (2:13).

In 1920, Znaniecki returned to a newly-independent Poland to become a professor of sociology at the University of Poznan. While at Poznan, he played a crucial role in training the first generation of Polish sociologists and was a leader in the development of the institutional structure of the Polish profession of sociology. He founded the Polish Sociological Institute (1922) and Polish Sociological Review (1929) and served as president of the Polish Sociological Society (1929--1940). From 1931 to 1933, Znaniecki undertook research on American education with George S. Counts and Edmund Brunner as a visiting professor at Columbia University. He was at Columbia once again during the summer of 1939 when the German invasion of Poland brought the beginning of World War II. Forced to abandon his attempt to reenter Poland when his name was found on a list of Polish intellectuals slated for execution by the Germans, Znaniecki returned to New York as the Julius Beer lecturer at Columbia (1939--1940) before accepting a position as visiting professor (1940) and later professor (1941) of sociology at the University of Illinois. Joined by his wife and daughter, who had been held briefly in a concentration camp in Poland, Znaniecki remained at the University of Illinois until his retirement in 1950.

Znaniecki's writing, whether in Polish or English, stressed his conception of sociology as a discipline distinct from either the natural sciences or psychology, as a highly specific study of social systems that described actions from the participant's as much as the investigator's point of view. Znaniecki repeatedly questioned the utility of statistical methodology and insisted on the importance of such subjective data as autobiographies, diaries, letters, and the personal experience of the observer. Drawing heavily on his early studies in philosophy, Znaniecki constructed a sociology that disdained the formation of a behavioral science of society and sought meaning instead in the actions and relations of the cultural element he designated "the humanistic coefficient."

Scope Note

The Papers of Florian Znaniecki are divided into six series.

Series I. BIOGRAPHICAL

The first series of the papers consists of miscellaneous material describing Florian Znaniecki's life and career. Included are autobiographical and biographical essays, bibliographies of Znaniecki's work, and tributes by friends and colleagues. Correspondence related to the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences in America and other Polish-American social and educational organizations reveals the extent of his involvement in Polish intellectual life and his continuing concern for the well being of his fellow Polish immigrants in America. Three folders of material document Helena Znaniecki Lopata's efforts to publish her father's work after his death and her critical assessment of his work for the "Introduction" to Social Relations and Social Roles.

Series II. CORRESPONDENCE

The correspondence in this series is almost entirely incoming and is concentrated in the period 1930-1950. While most of the letters are routine, a number discuss matters of greater consequence: Znaniecki's letter to Theodore Abel in September, 1939 asking for "any job in any college at any salary -- no lower limit whatever in pay, and no highest limit in work;" J. W. Albig's reassuring offer of a position at Illinois three months later; C. Wright Mills' discussion of an agenda for the sociology of knowledge; and Pitirim Sorokin's comments on Znaniecki's Cultural Sciences. Several letters of tribute are also notable: Everett C. Hughes' praise for Modern Nationalities; Albion Small's statement in May 1919 that "if I could have my way you would be a member of the Chicago faculty;" and W. I. Thomas' comment in 1942 that "I was most fortunate in getting you connected with the Polish Peasant and...I like to think that I did you a good turn by getting you over here at the time."

Series III. SOCIAL RELATIONS AND SOCIAL ROLES (1965)

The third series contains the final typescript text of Social Relations and Social Roles along with a number of preliminary drafts and notes. Especially important are the drafts of two chapters on the "Social Roles of Musicians" and the "Evolution of Social Roles of Poets" which did not appear in the published edition of the book.

IV. OTHER WRITINGS

Znaniecki co-authored with W. I. Thomas The Polish Peasant in Europe and America (1918--1920), a five-volume work with a "Methodological Note" that has made it a classic of sociological literature. While the Florian Znaniecki papers contain little that refers specifically to The Polish Peasant, the collection incorporates manuscripts of a number of other important works completed while Znaniecki was professor of sociology at the University of Illinois. Included in this series are miscellaneous drafts of published and unpublished articles and essays on a variety of topics in sociology. The holograph notes on national cultural groups published in translation by Vincente Herrero presented an outline of the ideas explored later in Modern Nationalities (1952). The manuscript of The Social Role of the University Student was compiled in the mid-1940's as part of a project conducted by Znaniecki and his classes in sociology at the University of Illinois. The University did not adopt the recommendations of the report and the manuscript itself was never published.

V. NOTES AND BIBLIOGRAPHIES

The notes in this series record Znaniecki's wide reading in sociology, philosophy, and related fields. The notes have been arranged alphabetically by the name of the author of the source. Two folders containing bibliographies on sociology compiled by Znaniecki and his students follow them.

VI. ADDENDA

The addendum consists primarily of correspondence and manuscripts.

Related Resources

The following related resources are located in the Department of Special Collections:

http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/spcl/select.html

Further information on the Department of Sociology and Anthropology during Znaniecki's brief tenure can be found in the Presidents' Papers, the Papers of Albion W. Small and Robert E. Park, and the W. I. Thomas Inventory.

Subject Headings

• Burgess, Ernest Watson, 1886-1966
• Hughes, Everett Cherrington, 1897-
• Small, Albion Woodbury, 1854-1926
• Thomas, William Isaac, 1863-1947
• Wirth, Louis, 1897-1952
• Znaniecki, Florian, 1882-1958
• Sociology
• Social psychology
• Polish Americans
• Poles -- United States
• Sociologists

INVENTORY