Norman Davies' Playground: Nineteenth Century Polish History
Norman Davies' Playground: Nineteenth Century Polish History

Summary/Abstract: A felicitous style of writing and fortuitous timing in the publication of a comprehensive and up-to-date history of Poland, together with a lack of a comparable work in English, have won for Norman Davies the status of one of the leading experts on Polish history in the West. Published just when journalists were casting around for background material about Poland and when the western public's interest in that country had reached its highest level ever, Davies's two-volume God's Playground: A History of Poland (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981; New York: Columbia University Press, 1982) represents the first extensive history of Poland in English written by a single author. Capitalizing on this success, Davies then published a more popular account, Heart of Europe: A Short History of Poland (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986). [...]

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