War and Peace

[Maciek]

I forgot to mention the book which was originally written in English: Rising '44: The Battle for Warsaw by Norman Davies - this is an excellent read and it has a lot of background information about what was happening in the allied countries in relation to Poland. Davies has also written a comprehensive history of Poland. The shorter version is called Heart of Europe: The Past in Poland's Present. The earlier, longer one is in two volumes: God's Playground: A History of Poland: Origins to 1795 Vol 1 and God's Playground A History of Poland: Volume II: 1795 to the Present: A History of Poland: 1795 to the Present Vol 2. The books have cult status over here: I don't think there can be a better recommendation of a foreign author writing about Poland (I believe his wife is Polish though ).

Another good general history of Poland (again: written originally in English!) is Adam Zamoyski's The Polish Way: A Thousand Year History of the Poles and Their Culture. Zamoyski has also written books about Paderewski and Chopin, and a book about the War of 1920: Warsaw 1920: Lenin's Failed Conquest of Europe (and so has Davies, BTW: White Eagle, Red Star: The Polish-Soviet War, 1919-20!).

Re Polish authors: One of the best authors in Polish modern history is, IMO, Jerzy Eisler - however, it seems nothing has been translated... Another one worth mentioning is Andrzej Paczkowski, a very reliable historian - though his style is perhaps not the most attractive (or maybe I'm just biased: I used some of his books when studying for my modern Polish history exam - I think this may have been the main textbook I used but I'm not sure - in Polish it had a much more boring title ).

I've also mentioned some books (by Bialoszewski, Nalkowska, Grudzinski and others) here and elsewhere on that same thread.

Of course, nothing beats source materials but I don't see anything of what I've read translated (there are fascinating diaries and some great anthologies collecting documents).

But I'll shut up now - I feel I've pounced and stolen the thread.

(But then, you were asking for it... )

[Sean]

Goodness me, what a scholar you must be...that's a post to file in my to-do list for sure. I admire the patriotism- the world needs more of that.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I read your recommendations with great interest, Maciek. I'll keep them in mind.

[M forever]

But I'll shut up now - I feel I've pounced and stolen the thread.

No, that's OK - although I have started the thread and so, "technically", it's my thread, I have had very little time and nerve in the last week or so to actually participate and see how it has developed. It's the nature of a good discussion anyway that it roams freely. It looks to me like your last posts (I may go back later tonight and look through the last pages) are mostly about Polish history, so since history more or less is the history of wars, that seems to me to be OT anyway.