Heart of Europe: The Past in Poland's Present

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Binding: Paperback Dewey Decimal Number: 943.8 EAN: 9780192801265 ISBN: 0192801260 Label: Oxford University Press, USA Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 520 Publication Date: 2001-08-23 Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA Studio: Oxford University Press, USA
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Editorial Reviews: The image of Poland has once again been impressed on European consciousness. Norman Davies provides a key to understanding the modern Polish crisis in this lucid and authoritative description of the nation's history. Beginning with the period since 1945, he travels back in time to highlight the long-term themes and traditions which have influenced present attitudes. His evocative account reveals Poland as the heart of Europe in more than the geographical sense. It is a country where Europe's ideological conflicts are played out in their most acute form: as recent events have emphasized, Poland's fate is of vital concern to European civilization as a whole. This revised and updated edition tackles and analyses the issues arising from the fall of the Eastern Bloc, and looks at Poland's future within a political climate of democracy and free market.
Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: A typical prise for Poland's history Comment: It is always unbelievable to read books on Polish history. Those authors always try to monopolise all the history of the various nations which lived in the Lithuanian & Polish Commonwelth as being of only Polish origin. While the opposite fact is more true. Kosciuszko, Mickevicius, Milosc and many many other prominante figures of that country had little in common with the ethnic Poland, but where citizens of Lithuania who spoke Polish. The tragedy of that country was the attempts to relegate all that was not polish to slavery, peasantry and to exterminate all the peoples that did not accept polish culture, language, etc. as their native. Thus, this country was doomed since Lithuanian kings of Jogaila's decent ceased to rule the truely multi-cultural country. Afterwards, Polish genocide of Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Bellorussian, Kashubian, and many other nations finally lead to anarchy and partition of the Republic. The irony of history is that Ukrainians, Lithuanians and Bellorussians have to thank the Russian invadors for preserving their nations from the Polish genocide. As a matter of fact, it was with the help of Russian officials that Samogitian bishop was selected from Lithuanian peasants. e.g. Valancius and he had nothing to do with Polish slekta, who where bitterly opposed to Lithuanian language and called Lithuanians "chlopzi", and other insulting names, as to refer to them as second class citizens who had no rights to obtain education, freedom, career, etc. without accepting polish identity. It is sufficient to read the "Constitution" of 1792, where the Republic was recognised as the nation of polish people, while the rest of the nations were relegated to slavery not seen anywhere in the World at that time... Customer Rating: Summary: Fine Historical Argument Comment: In the preface to the first edition published in 1984, Norman Davies writes, "No history book which sets out to relate the past to the present is written at the right time." Davies For Davies, the time he chose was 1983 - a few years into Jaruzelski's military coup and what appeared to be a definite lull in the historical action. 1983, as it turns out was also on the cusp of the great changes that the fall of communism had in store for the world by the end of the 1980's. This is also where the book begins and then proceeds in a reverse chronological fashion to cover 5 separate periods of history including first, the period of the People's Republic (1944-1983), second, the period encompassing World War II (1939-1947), third, World War I and the interwar period (1914-1939), fourth, history during the Partitions (1795-1918) and fifth, historic Poland (history prior to 1795). Davies then returns to 1983 to demonstrate the "past in Poland's present" or as Davies more eloquently puts it, "Such is the burden of History in Polish consciousness, that any full appreciation of the Polish crisis requires a full examination of the way in which the chief actors on the political scene perceived their roles in relation to the nations traditions." The next chapter is (now) a misnomer entitled "Beyond History" in which Davies reflects on the state of affairs in 1983 and is looking forward to the not-to-distant future. This chapter was the last chapter of the First and Second Editions and, as it turned out, Davies did not have to wait long before the not-to-distant future arrived in 1989 in which the People's Republic melted away. This inspired a new chapter for the 3rd edition entitled "Liberation" and covers the period from 1983 to roughly 2000. Davies' work has a two-fold purpose. The first purpose is to demonstrate that one who has recourse to history can more fully understand and appreciate the significance of present day events. That is not to say that the past predetermines the present, but it is to say the present loses its meaning and significance without its relation to the past. The second purpose was to show that although much of Poland's past lies at the intersection of East and West (or to use Samuel Huntington's formulation, between the Western Civilization and the Orthodox Civilization), Poland's proper place is in the West and it was Davies' hope when he first published that Poland would move out of the Soviet orbit and back into the Western world. Those hopes were realized when Poland joined NATO and the EU. Davies' work is not so much history as it is historical argument and, as such, is a fine historical argument. If one is looking for a more traditional history, I would recommend M.B. Biskupski's "The History of Poland" (short), or Adam Zamoyski's "The Polish Way" (medium) or Norman Davies' "God's Playground" (long). Customer Rating: Summary: Excellent Comment: Well written book, takes a very comprehensive look at the history of not just Poland, but the entire region, and the forces that shaped it. The narration is reverse-chronological, starting with the most recent events, and tracing them back in history. It's worth reading just for his thesis about Poland's history bein characterized by cycles of great idealism and great pragmatism - a paradoxical merger, but one that works to this day. Customer Rating: Summary: Typical brutal reply of the barbarian Comment: (...) Apparently for (...) history of Central Europe there is a huge black hole beginning XV century till the end of XVII century. This is not very surprising considering that in one of the previous 'reviews' she/he mentions 'typical slovian brutality'. The hatered that shouts from those reviews is disturbing. What kind of 'typical hatered' it is? I could argue that for few centures territory of Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth has been fairly quiet patch of tolerance in Europe (compared with Western Europe). That Poland really did not start second world war and Polish really did not support Hitler. That Poland lost 6 million citizens (3 million of them of Jewish origin). Of cause Poland ais not saint of nations, no nation is. If one wants one can find many shamefull episodes in the history. But the same can be said about English (colonialism, slavery), Americans (extermination of Indian tribes), Jews (what did American Jews do to help European ones?, what is their policy towards Palestinians? - just to give modern time examples) and so on. The opinions like Mrs/Mr Wing ones just made it plain that there is the need for books concerning Central Europe history. Maybe in the future there will be no American asking Pole, Czech, Slovakian or Ukrainian if there are still open concentration camps or if their countries border with China. Instead of eating books one should read them and try to understand. Customer Rating: Summary: Not Just History Comment: But sociology and psychology as well. I have been trying to educate myself in the area of European History over the course of the last year or so. As an introduction, I bought "Europe: A History" by Davies. After that overview, I have acquired other titles that focus on specific topics on European history such as "Heart of Europe: A Short History of Poland." As a novice, I have no qualifications to challenge the history. I have a problem with the style. Mr. Davies, perhaps as someone who "feels" history, spends a great deal of effort addressing the sociological and psychological consequences of the various historical events. If Mr. Davies were to describe a car accident, he would include descriptions of how the passengers and by-standers felt and what it was that might have caused them to do what they did next. For me, I would rather have the facts reported as if they were a newspaper article. Nevertheless, I would recommend this book for the factual information. More Reviews