Poland's Threatening Other: The Image of from 1880 to Present, by Joanna Beata Michlic. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2006. 386 pp. $75.00. Arriving in midst of acrimonious public debates in Poland (to which Joanna B. Michlic contributed in past) surrounding revelations about Poles' complicity in murder and suffering of Polish Jews during WWII, Pofond's Threatening Other: The Image of from 1880 to Present is historical inquiry into etiology of antisemitic prejudice in Poland and its long-term impact on Polish society. As such, it belongs to new progressive school of Polish scholarship, dedicated to task of revising Polish historical and cultural dogmas. The book provides much-needed background for events described inj. T. Gross' Neighbors (about massacres of Jews in Jedwabne by their Polish neighbors in 1942) and Fear (about Kielce pogrom in 1946), making them more comprehensible as social and historical phenomena, though by no means more justifiable. Polish philosopher Leszek Kolakowski once remarked that, in Polish language, the Jew always functioned as abstract negative symbol and general term of abuse. Typically, throughout history of Poland, Jews have been blamed for country's social ills and economic and political woes. In her study, Michlic excavates historical trajectory of such pejorative valuations of Jewishness. She examines their exceptional durability and potency, arguing that negative perceptions of Jews have played crucial role in formation of Polish national identity. According to Michlic, ethno-nationalism (a belief that national membership lies in common genealogy, language, and cultural history) emerged in Poland in 1880s, in wake of failed national uprisings against occupying powers. At time when Poland did not exist on map of Europe, language of Jewish menace was disseminated to raise political consciousness and to consolidate sense of Polish identity and unity. The cohesiveness of Polish national myth depended on exclusion of Jewish other. The antisemitic topos gained dangerous momentum after Poland regained independence in 1918, when it became, in Michlic's words, a powerful, emotive tool for nation building (p. 1). The strife for national self-definition culminated in coming to power, in 1935, of ultranationalistEndecja, which implemented discriminatory measures against Jewish citizens and encouraged anti-Jewish violence, leading to deterioration of Polish -Jewish relations on eve of World War II. Here, Michlic's analyses are especially noteworthy since they throw light on political provenance of Polish indifference to Jewish tragedy during war, absence of solidarity with Jews, low societal approval for acts of rescue, and lack of recognition for acts of Jewish resistance, most notably Warsaw Ghetto Uprising as part of Polish struggle against Germans. Immediately after war, idiom of Jewish menace played significant role in Polish people's unsuccessful resistance against Soviet regime. As Jews were being held responsible for imposition of Soviet rule (as reflected in widespread myth of zydokomuna - Judeo-communism), eruption of violence against Holocaust survivors in Poland was perceived as fully justified. Paradoxically, negative images of Jews were evoked also by communist government to fight political opposition, eventually leading to an exodus of remaining Polish Jews (most notably after virulent wave of anti- Zionist incidents in 1968). In this context, Michlic accounts for an apparent paradox of co -existence of communist slogans of equality and internationalism, and communist government's reliance on ethno-nationalist traditions to legitimize its rule. …