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Heart of Europe: The Past in Poland's Present (Paperback)

by Norman Davies (Author) "There can be few countries in the world where the system of government was held in greater public disrepute than it was in Poland ..." (more)

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Product details

Paperback: 520 pages
Publisher: Oxford Paperbacks; Updated Edition edition (31 May 2001)
Language English
ISBN-10: 0192801260
ISBN-13: 978-0192801265
Product Dimensions: 19 x 12.7 x 3.6 cm

Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 118,350 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
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#6 in Books > History > Other Historical Subjects > Historians > Davies, Norman

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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.

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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

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	73% buy the item featured on this page: Heart of Europe: The Past in Poland's Present 4.3 out of 5 stars (3) �8.37
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4.3 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)

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64 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Beating Heart Of Europe, 13 Jul 2007

By	Moon Cheese - See all my reviews

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.

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72 of 79 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent and highly readable history of Poland, 24 Aug 2001

By	Anthony Zacharzewski "jan_zagloba" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

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21 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very good book, 26 April 2007

By	1001 Pages (Germany) - See all my reviews

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.

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