Tom Junes has written a thorough and compelling book on students, who have figured as an important and often underestimated collective actor in contemporary Polish history.... Although the narrative of the book focuses on political processes, Junes shows sensitivity to the broader social context, nuances, and mechanisms underpinning student politics as well. The latter is perhaps the most valuable dimension of the book. The monograph provides readers with what is probably the most in-depth and accurate portrait of the Stalinist generation, focusing on those who came of age and were socialized in the early 1950s, when terror and indoctrination reached their peak.... Junes does not hesitate to offer grand interpretations, which doubtlessly enhance not only the scope but also the value of the book.... Student Politics in Communist Poland remains a well-researched, readable, even snappy book.... The result is a detailed and in many ways brilliant panorama of Polish history, seen from a well-chosen angle: the lens of the experiences of different generations of students.

Hungarian Historical Review

This meticulous study delves into a wealth of Polish archives and is notable for extended interviews conducted by the author with key actors in Poland.... Junes is to be congratulated on his pioneering account of this previously understudied elite.

Europe-Asia Studies

Tom Junes in his book . . . looks at the important part of Polish history, taking particularly interesting and basically unprecedented perspective. . . .Noteworthy is the richness and diversity of source material that [was] used to prepare the book.

Polish-Studies.Interdisciplinary

In twelve brisk chapters, Junes provides an overview of Polish student activism between 1945 and 1989…. His account draws on documents from more than a dozen Polish archives, as well as interviews with some fifty former activists, many of whom are quoted at length. It is exhaustively researched, impressively thorough, and admirably concise….

CritCom: a Forum for Research & Commentary on Europe

This well-researched monograph by Tom Junes provides a historical overview of student politics in Poland from 1944 to 1989…. Junes’ retelling the history of People’s Poland through the prism of the student milieu provides important new insights. The use of information taken from many interviews is a particular strength of this book, which deserves a place on the bookshelves of all those interested in postwar Polish history.

Slavic Review

[T]he book brings new insights on the two important topics. It offers a summary of prequels to the well-known episodes of Polish history between 1945 and 1989, as it involves the same protagonists but in younger, student-age. Its subject-matter accentuates the significance of the student political actions and their influence on the political and also social development in the Communist Poland. Besides, it also contributes to the understanding of the background and some of the motivations of many personalities shaping the last twenty-seven years of Polish political development.

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