| ||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.90
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in Heart of Europe: The Past in Poland's Present for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.90, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"another masterpiece. Heart of Europe has sweep, a rare analytical depth and a courageous display of the author's personal convictions. The book begins and ends with Solidarity; the unique labour movement thus serves as a frame for the nation's history."--New York Times Book Review
Product Description
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 Block, and looks at Poland's future within a political climate of democracy and free market.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
There can be few countries in the world where the system of government was held in greater public disrepute than it was in Poland. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
There can be few countries in the world where the system of government was held in greater public disrepute than it was in Poland. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
48 of 49 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If you have neither the time to read nor wish to go the expense of purchasing Norman Davies' two volume epic of Polish history `God's Playground' but wish to better understand Poland and it's people then this book is a `must buy'.
The author has since written many books that have the Polish people at their heart - `Rising '44' and arguably `Europe At War' and `Europe: East & West' and his love of the Polish is as evident as his anger at their treatment during the greater part of the last 200 years.
On reading this book it is clear to see why.
Davies has an immense understanding of Polish politics, literature and culture and his arguments are convincing and fully reinforced by evidence and presented in a fluent and engaging fashion.
Don't be put off by the Polish language because there is a section in the preface that comprehensively explains pronunciation, and all the names are easy to remember so one won't get `lost' trying to remember who was who.
Europe is getting smaller, and for the last 50 years or so Poland has largely been a `black hole' to those of us outside, but it truly is the `Heart of Europe' and knowing and understanding it's history - as this book is an excellent aid - is essential for a wider comprehension of Europe's development over the last eight hundred years and more specifically the last three centuries.
The author has since written many books that have the Polish people at their heart - `Rising '44' and arguably `Europe At War' and `Europe: East & West' and his love of the Polish is as evident as his anger at their treatment during the greater part of the last 200 years.
On reading this book it is clear to see why.
Davies has an immense understanding of Polish politics, literature and culture and his arguments are convincing and fully reinforced by evidence and presented in a fluent and engaging fashion.
Don't be put off by the Polish language because there is a section in the preface that comprehensively explains pronunciation, and all the names are easy to remember so one won't get `lost' trying to remember who was who.
Europe is getting smaller, and for the last 50 years or so Poland has largely been a `black hole' to those of us outside, but it truly is the `Heart of Europe' and knowing and understanding it's history - as this book is an excellent aid - is essential for a wider comprehension of Europe's development over the last eight hundred years and more specifically the last three centuries.
82 of 85 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Norman Davies's great skill is writing detailed history that keeps general readers interested, while not skimping on academic detail. In this book, he has condensed his two-volume masterpiece "God's Playground" into a form more suitable for generalists.
The result is a triumph - a brief but highly enjoyable history, enlivened by Davies's dry wit and a treasury of pertinent anecdotes. Poland's magnificent and tragic history is portrayed here in its full range and scope, neither glorifying the Poles as eternal martyrs for freedom, nor slandering them as backward xenophobes.
Given the widespread public ignorance of Polish history, and the sensitivity of Poles to external comment on it, the greatest accolade for Davies must surely be that the Polish translation of God's Playground has been selected as the official history textbook for use in Polish schools.
This new edition of Heart of Europe includes new material on the changes in Poland since 1989.
28 of 30 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Apart from Davies's magisterial two volumes on Polish history ("God's Playground") and his amazing "city-biography" of Wroclaw / Breslau ("Microcosm"), this is the book you might start with if interested in the history of Poland. The peculiar quirk to this book is that it tells things "backwards", i.e. beginning in our times and then working its way down the centuries to the shrouded origins of the Polish nation. I found it highly illuminating and pleasant to read as well. It certainly gave me a insider's account of Polish history and a clear rendering of what their history means to the Poles today. A very good book. I wouldn't like to miss it.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Amazingly readable and very interesting.
It is quite an achievement for an English (or possibly Welsh)person to have written what appears to be the definitive Polish histories. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Michael J. Brett
well written but back to front history.
I am enjoying this book, still. But there is a frustration for me with this account. I can't see the advantage of a history that goes backwards. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Jeremy Vevers
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > History > Britain & Ireland > Ireland
- Books > History > Cultural History
- Books > History > Europe
- Books > History > Other Historical Subjects > Historians > Davies, Norman
- Books > History > World History
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
