The shifting attitudes to sources and traditional paradigms of social history and history of the early modern period culture, and to problems of individuals and groups, are considered here. The author indicates discussion fi elds and specifi c results of work carried out by research groups (mainly French and German ones). He indicates trends and tendencies in discovering individuals in presenting historical events from the perspective of a collective hero

Correspondence was an essential form of communication in the world of the humanities in the 1960s and 1970s. The letters exchanged between Józef Andrzej Gierowski and Jacek Staszewski exemplify the scholars’ discussion of Saxon times. This collection is at the same time a reflection of the main currents of research on political history and cultural history of the 18th century. Simultaneously, it is a testimony to the struggle of historians with the black legend of the reign of August II and August III.
The article presents the nature of these conversations and the topics discussed by the scholars: an exchange of views on resources in European archives, the reigns of August II and August III, a discussion of the Enlightenment, reviews of subsequent monographs and doctoral theses prepared at seminars in Kraków and Toruń. The correspondence between the two scholars is evidence not only of a shared passion, an interest in the Saxon era, neglected for many decades and marked by a black legend, but also of an intellectual exchange between the two humanists, which in time developed into a friendship.