Customer Reviews

A Concise History of Poland (Cambridge Concise Histories)

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This is beyond a doubt the best history of Poland I have read so far (and I run a website on Polish History). It is concise yet detailed enough for any reader or for the curious. There are fascinating facts that one does not come across in any of the other histories which add to the general background and it is written in a eminently readable fashion. Lukowski is a very familiar name amongst students of Polish History - his account of the Partitions is a classic and the partnership with Zawadzki makes me want to read that historian's work also. I cannot recommend this book enough. If you want a History of Poland then this is the definative version.

If you have no knowledge of Polish history, this book is a good place the start. The authors recommend Playground of the Gods if you are looking for a more detailed history of Poland, but I haven't read those yet so I can't "offically" recommend them.

This book covers basic events and ideas that occured in Poland for the past 1000 years. In addition to politics and military events, the authors attempt to list cultural figures, such as Chopin, and how those figures reflected or affected Polish events.

There were few details on events most people normally think about when they think of Poland, such as concentration camps and WWII. However, these issues aren't ignored entirely, just given the same coverage as other events in Polish history.

This book gives balanced detail to the different epochs of Polish history beginning with prehistory and ending with the fall of Communism.

Many interesting facts are presented in this book. For instance, the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Krakow was completed in 1397. (p. 52). In the 19th century, Russian revolutionaries Herzen and Bakunin supported the resurrection of the Polish state. (p. 163). In 1909, the Boryslaw-Drohobycz oil fields accounted for 5% of the world's oil production. (p. 162). Finally, Kiev had a large and thriving Polish intelligentsia as recently as 1917. (p. 164).

Some writers have claimed that Marie Curie-Sklodowska, following her move to France, increasingly distanced herself from her Polish heritage. In apparent refutation of this, the authors point out that Curie always maintained close contact with Poland, and was instrumental in establishing the Radium Institute in Warsaw in 1932. (p. 163). This was shortly before her death.

During the interwar period, popular illiteracy was reduced from 33% to 15%, and mortality rates were cut in half. A modest beginning was made in mechanization. In 1939, Poland had 2,000 tractors compared with France's 30,000. (pp. 221-222). (Of course, much agriculture all over Europe at the time was still non-mechanized).

A unique aspect of this book is its detailed list, in the back, of all of Poland's rulers, beginning with the dynasties. The list includes foreign rulers of Prussian-occupied, Austrian-occupied, and Russian-occupied Poland, as well the Communist rulers of Poland in the 20th century. There is even a listing of leaders of the Polish Government in Exile in London, which existed in the years 1939-1990.

In contrast to the usual myths, it is such a pleasure to read a more honest historical account written by two ethnic Polish writers, now, after many decades of war propagandas. As the authors of this book state: 'The 20th century has added its own myths ...after the Second World War, Polish historiography was want to depict a 'Piast Poland' whose boundaries were curiously congruent with those of the post 1945 state'. James Michener's book 'Poland' (claiming that Poland should have rightfully conquered Prussia), is also one of those myths perpetuating fictions. Michener, a fiction travel writer gentlemen, was taken in by his charming hosts, during the Communist Polish government, while writing his book. Some people take his fantasy book 'Poland' as factual history of Poland. In contrast the two authors of this book, Jerzy Lukowski and Hubert Zawadzki have done some factual research. High time that this 'Concise History of Poland' was written and published.

As other reviewers have noted, the authors of this book have sacrificed clarity and narrative focus in an attempt to fit almost 1000 years of Polish history into a "concise" volume. Part I of the book, which deals with pre-partitioned Poland through 1795, is much more difficult to follow than is the second part. Even so, within Part I, the third chapter (The Commonwealth of the Two Nations, 1572-1795) is more enjoyable than the first two. The first two chapters are written largely non-chronologically. I found this to make those chapters exceedingly difficult to follow.

Having said that, the book is very interesting, because of course of its subject matter. The question of national identity has always been especially important to Poland, especially given its history of coming in and out of existence and/or independence. I would have preferred that the authors take a more narrative approach to the material. That is, nonfiction books, even "concise history" books, ought to be ultimately telling the reader a story, not merely listing to him or to her loads of facts. The facts were interesting, but a different tone in the writing would have helped the final product.

Although I have an academic background, I knew very little about the complex history of Poland. I was a general reader, seeking an historical background for planned travels in Eastern Europe. I have learnt much from this book and I greatly appreciate the achievement of the authors in producing this concise but comprehensive coverage within 350 pages. However, much more could have been done to make the book more accessible and enjoyable for the general reader. For example, in each of the first two chapters the reader must wade through 40 pages of unrelenting text without the aid of a framework of sub-headings identifying any themes/directions/eras which could assist the reader. (A good example of how this could be achieved is the "Iron Kingdom - The Rise and Fall of Prussia" by Christopher Clark - Harvard University Press.)
The later chapters are more accessible and interesting and the book contains an excellent series of maps which do help with the reader's orientation.

As advertised, this "concise" history of Poland, this one-volume attempt, is just what it is purported to be-"concise." In fact it is so concise that it is confusing in the early going before the year 1795. Being that Poland is/was and has always been a divided and enlarging and shrinking state,sometimes even disappearing,this attempt at chronicling the ever changing Poland is written as advertized,"the highly complex part of this state prior to 1795, " is difficult to follow. This volume is my first attempt at reading a chronological history of
Poland and it was confusing to say the least. The double and sometimes multiple lines of its dynasties, i.e. the Piast and the Jagiellonian pre-1795 intermixed with Polish, Lithuanian and Russ, the Holy Roman Empire, Hungary and other dynasties is clearly unclear. To their credit,the authors Jerzy Lukowski and Hubert Zawadzki make a gallant attempt to present the story of this early history of an ever changing "state" or was it a "condition" called Poland/Lithuania.There was too much flip-floping back and forth between the concurrent dynasties and sometimes flipping to previous and future realms in the writers attempts to explain this Polish-Lithuanian history. Once they trudge through those dublicitious early years things get much clearer to read. I actually found the 20th century writing to be understandable. I especially liked the chronicling of the World War II and Post-WWII eras and their descriptions of the German and Soviet takeovers and the building and the fall of the Communist regime. Perhaps my experience in my own lifetime and my previous studies of modern 20th century history and my studies of the building of the Third Reich and the Soviet dictatorships and their fall allowed me to understand more of what the writers were trying to say.I especially liked the maps of different eras in this volume. They helped me a lot in trying to make sense of this confusing story.I also liked the way the Catholic Church was portrayed as an interveener throughout the history of this "country." I have much sympathy for the Polish and Lithuianian people and their plight throughout modern history. The discussions of the effects of the Taters was well written and added to the understanding of this confusing early history prior to 1795. Years ago I read Minchner's Poland, and got my first picture of the enlarging, shrinking, and sometimes disappearing state of Poland.So having read this volume before reading A Concise History of Poland helped me a lot to understand this volume. I suspect that some confusion may also have been germinated in the writers attempts at putting numerous languages and their meanings into english.

It must be remembered that Lukowski and Zawadzki have written a concise history. For a more detailed hisory of Poland in the English language one would need to read the two volumes of 'God's Playground' written by Norman Davies. For a more depictive, rather than deeply analytical history of Poland, Adam Zamoyski's 'The Polish Way' makes for an engrossing read.

What I note about the Lukowski and Zawadzki work is its objectivity, particularly in examining the aspirations of other nations, namely the Lithuanians, Ruthenians (today's Ukrainians and Belarusians), whose respective fates were strongly linked to the fate of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the period following the wars of Polish succession and eventual partition. It also examines how the Duchy of Prussia was able to gradually break away from Polish rule as the Commonwealth declined. The rise and fall and the powerful re-emergence of the Polish Nation is well covered. For those who want to understand the Poland of today as an important member of NATO and the EU the Lukowski and Zawadzki tome is a good place to start.