Marcin Wodziński is Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Wrocław.

• List of IllustrationsNote on Transliteration, Place Names, and SourcesList of AbbreviationsIntroduction1 To 'Civilize' the Jews: Polish Debates on the Reform of the Jewish People, 1789- 1830The Framework of the Debate * Diagnosis * The Goal * Measures: What are 'Civil Christians?' * What does 'to Civilize' Mean? * Conclusions2 Origins: Controversies over Hasidic ShtiblekhBefore the Congress Kingdom * Nameless: The First Ruling on Hasidic Shtiblekh * Investigating the Kitajowcy in Plock * Michels: Shtiblekh, Mikveh, and Burial Societies * Conclusions3 The Investigation of 1823-4Hussites: Beginnings of the Investigation * Hasidism is Banned * Counteroffensive * Stanislaw Staszic against the Tsadikim * Hasidism Delivered: Conclusions4 Between Words and ActionsState Politics and Local Politicians * Silent Turning Point : Hasidism in the Politics of the Kingdom after 1831 * The Last Investigation * Ignorance, Inertia, Frustration * Who Profited? On the Ostensible Equality of Hasidism * Epilogue: The 1860s * Conclusions5 The Hasidim Strike Back: Development of Hasidic Political InvolvementsBeginnings: Berek Sonnenberg and his Circle * Offensive: Meir Rotenberg of Opatow * Triumph: Isaac Kalisz of Warka * The Third Phase * Digression: Corruption * The Local Context: Conclusions6 Communal Dimensions of Hasidic PoliticsWho? Agents of Hasidic Communal Politics * Whom? Protagonists * Why? Goals * How? Means * Local or Universal? * Conclusions7 Haskalah and Government Policy towards HasidismThe Role of Hasidism in the Political Activity of the Polish Maskilim * Myth and Reality in the Role of the Maskilim * How did Maskilic and Hasidic Shtadlanim Differ? * ConclusionsConclusionBibliographyIndex

‘A worthy successor to the author's path-breaking Haskalah and Hasidism in the Kingdom of Poland . . . one of the leading scholars in the field, and he brings to his subject a wide familiarity with Polish and Jewish sources in Hebrew, Yiddish, Polish, and other languages and, most notably, the fruits of his thorough combing of national, regional, and local Polish archives . . . He has thus been able to free the historical narrative from the long-regnant approaches of Simon Dubnow and Raphael Mahler, looking afresh at the complex and developing relationships between Polish authorities and Polish Jewry in general, and the rapidly expanding Hasidic movement in particular . . . a notable addition to the growing number of studies focusing on the long-neglected topic of Hasidism in the nineteenth century . . . a carefully nuanced and contextualized portrait of a complex topic that in earlier historiography suffered from stereotyping and oversimplification . . . an excellent book that should interest students of Polish and Jewish history alike.’Gershon Bacon, Slavic Review