Bitter Glory: Poland and Its Fate, 1918-1939 [Paperback]

Richard M. Watt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1998

Watt tells the story of the painful birth, tormented life, and cataclysmic death of the independent Poland of 1918--1939. He also gives the definitive account in English of the dominant figure in this story, the Polish freedom fighter and strongman Jozef Pilsudski, whose admirers included Poland's Jews and Adolf Hitler.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Richard M Watt

Product Details

• Paperback: 511 pages
• Publisher: Hippocrene Books (October 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0781806739
• ISBN-13: 978-0781806732
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #746,834 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unique: Only Book I've Seen on this Subject, July 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Bitter Glory: Poland and Its Fate, 1918-1939 (Paperback)

If you want to know about interwar Poland, this is the book to read. It's fascinating! It shows you a completely different perspective on WWI and WWII, and it's probably the perspective that most accurately draws in all of the issues that lead to those two wars. The story of Poland in the twentieth century IS the story of Europe in the twentieth century. The book is a great read, to boot.

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Prologue to Tragedy, April 25, 2000

By 

Donal A. O'Neill - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bitter Glory: Poland and Its Fate, 1918-1939 (Paperback)

As Mr. Watts showed in his earlier works "Dare Call it Treason" on the French mutinies of 1917 and "The Kings Depart" on Germany and the Versailles Treaty, he is a master of narrative history. The present book is of similar quality. It is the sort of "find" one dreams of encountering but so seldom does, a well-written, exciting account of a subject one knows to be of interest and importance, but on which little seems to be available outside detailed academic histories. Mr. Watts has a splendidly exciting story to tell - how Modern Poland sprung from a dream of freedom that had been kept alive despite a century and a half of partition and foreign repression - and he tells it with verve. The initial part of the story is on an epic scale: the apparently hopeless struggle of Pilsudski and other nationalists to breathe new life into the Polish ideal prior to the First World War, their brilliant exploitation of events as the German, Austro-Hungarian and Russian Empires crumbled at the end of it, their momentarily-successful attempt to revive an earlier Greater Poland stretching from the Baltic to the Black Sea and their final, incredible, last-ditch success in repulsing Bolshevik invasion in 1920. After this deliverance - or rather nineteen-year stay of execution, as subsequent events were to prove - the challenge of creating a modern, economically viable state was a daunting one, with minimal resources and an impoverished, undereducated population. The second part of the book, detailing the painful process of industrialisation and of land, fiscal and education reform is no less fascinating than the first, playing out against a background of hostile neighbours and internal political squabbling. Petty party politics and narrow sectional interests bedevilled the new nation and once Pilsudski, the founding father, a benevolent not-quite-dictator, passed from the scene in the mid '30s these became ever more malignant factors, not least in unworthy half-tolerance of increasing Anti-Semitism. Despite all however, one gets the sense of a heroic people seeking a higher destiny, faltering on occasion, yet never losing faith in themselves and hope in the future. Mr.Watts guides the reader through the morass of party politics with assurance, never losing one's interest, and is very effective in bringing to life the main players in inter-war Polish society. The book ends with the disaster of 1939, with Poland once again partitioned by its ruthless neighbours and with its indomitable citizens entering the hell that will see them brutalised and enslaved, but also fighting on battle fronts from North Africa to Normandy and the Netherlands, over the skies of Western Europe and, bloody but unbowed, in the very ruins and sewers of Warsaw itself. These latter epics of Polish heroism are well recorded elsewhere and it is to Mr.Watts' credit that he has recorded so well what set the scene for these later events.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars excellent account of Poland between the wars, December 7, 2001

By 

Jim Panzee (Pittsburgh, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bitter Glory: Poland and Its Fate, 1918-1939 (Paperback)

This book covers the history of Poland between World War I and World War II. The period was lively, to say the least, involving what are now almost-forgotten conflicts with most of Poland's neighbors, not to mention much political infighting and the period of the depression. The story loses nothing in the telling: as several reviewers have previously stated, this author is an excellent writer of narrative history. The description of the ebb and flow of armies are clear and fast-moving, and the characters of the major players come vividly to life. I think that both the casual reader and the specialist will find much to enjoy. I think that the lead-up to WWII isn't quite as strong as the rest of the account. This is the only thing that, in my mind, keeps this from being a 5-star review.

Of course, Mr. Watts virtually has the field to himself, so if you are interested in the history of Poland between the wars, you have to read this book. I'm pleased to say it's a very good one.

P.S. I also recommend Mr. Watts' other books, The Kings Depart (Germany immediately after WWI) and Some Dare Call it Treason (the French Army Mutinies in WWI).