26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Walk the distance, it is worth it, May 17, 2005
Norman Davies' `God's Playground' is a rather concise history of Poland. It should be compulsory reading for everyone, who wants to find out about this part of the world. I don't think there is any better.
Davies quite rightly anticipates in his preface that the book's title might raise an eyebrow. And it did. When I originally picked it up, I assumed that the title related to the (then Polish) Pope in Rome. The real reason behind the title is explained in the preface of Volume 1. In any case, it does seem to fit the subject of study perfectly.
The first part of the book deals with Polish history right up to 1945, starting off with essays on life in the three partitions between 1772 and 1918. Davies follows this up with industrialisation and the changes in population structure before moving onto descriptions of the various state entities on Polish Territory. 1848 was an important date revolution-wise for a number of European states. Although there was some of this on Polish Territory, nothing came off it.
Poland's re-establishment as a separate state in 1918 indeed appears to be the result of a `fluke' rather than by design. The 1918-39 period is marked by the upheaval you would find in almost any new state. On top of that, Poland had to deal with the Sovietunion and Nazi Germany, which in 1939 partitioned the country yet again.
The 1939-45 period must be the darkest part of Poland's history. If Nazi Germany had succeeded, there would be no Polish people left today.
Following the end of WWII in 1945, the Sovietunion succeeded in hanging onto `its bit' of Poland with the country being compensated with German territory in the West. Davies quite rightly points out that the subsequent evacuation of the German population was decided by the Allied Powers and not by Poland herself. The loss of life involved in the process was indeed regrettable. However, as a result of this `move to the West', Poland found herself in a rather unique position geographically and with next to no potential minority conflicts.
Part 2 of the book deals with Poland since 1945. It would appear that communism never really gained a firm foothold in Poland, which should not really be a surprise given that communism never delivered the goodies - not just not in Poland but nowhere else either.
The single most important event in recent Polish history was the election of Pope John Paul II in 1978, who is often credited as the moral power behind the end of communism in Eastern Europe. Solidarnosc and General Jaruzelski seem to be just sideshows. However, the emergence of the former rang the bell of the end of communism in Poland, whilst the latter prevented an invasion of the Red Army and set the conditions for Poland to emerge into the 1990s as a free state (for the first time in 300 years). These days, Poland is just another `normal' state in Europe. By joining both NATO and the EU, she has insured herself against falling back in history.
Davies meticulously records Poland's history right up to EU entry and he does an excellent job. What I am missing is a look into the future. I would be surprised indeed, if Davies didn't have a view on where Poland is heading. But apart from that, this book is excellent.
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great scholarship, February 17, 2004
By A Customer
With bracing clarity Norman Davies tells the story of non-Germanic Central Europe located between two voracious empires, Germany and Russia. The narrative is rich in detail and entertaining, yet it is impeccably scholarly. Few history books measure up to it.
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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
And excellent work on the history of Poland, June 16, 2007
This review is from: God's Playground: A History of Poland, Vol. 2: 1795 to the Present (Paperback)
Pros:
As far as I can tell this book has been written objectively and describes the history of Poland in detail. For me it filled a huge gap in my knowledge of what happened in Poland and in general in Eastern Europe in the last 1000 years. The book is filled with excerpts from poems, ancient documents and first hand accounts of events which make it a very interesting read. The maps and illustrations do an excellent job. I do not know of any other alternatives which will desribe the polish history in such detail.
Cons:
At times this book flows lucidly and at other times it becomes a rambling of very dry facts and a listing of names etc which reminded of me of school history textbooks that used to drive me crazy. My other beef with the book is that there is no structure to it which allows you to understand what is going on. Imagine a movie which is made by assembling various shots together but has not been edited to ensure a logical progression of events. Only when you have gone thru everything do you really understand the entire movie. This is true of both the volumes. It goes into extreme detail about events without first describing what the event was. To exacerbate this, the book assumes that you have a knowledge of events that happened in Europe in the last 1000 years and frequently draws upon them to explain other things in polish history.
The last problem is that this book claims to have been revised and updated in 2005. Unfortunately this is true for only a couple of chapters in the second volume of the book. The first volume still reads like it was written in 1980s. Also there are at least a hundred minor editorial errors in the volume 2 which take away from a pleasurable reading experience.
Desribe the cons I would still recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about the history of Poland.
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