Area man culturally enlightened on Poland
Written: Jul 28 '02 (Updated Jul 28 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Best book available about Poland's history
Cons: none.
The Bottom Line: Of unexampled magnificence
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| SnowFalcon_CU's Full Review: God's Playground Books |
Simply put, this is the definitive work on the history of Poland written in any language to date. Professor Norman Davies' Gods Playground: History of Poland (Columbia Univ. Press 1982) reconstructs in a two volume set the origins from her christening in A.D. 966 by Mieszko I to her Solidarity unionizing by Lech Walesa in the 1980's. I say it be inappropriate for any chap to browbeat professor Davies for writing with such immensity, as Western-society must begin to see that the rich history, ongoing preservation of old traditions, paramount resiliency, and extended familial values of Polish culture cannot be summarized in four-hundred pages or so. Though some may shriek at the utter 'density' injected into these books, I'd call it Wattage, I claim, however, that his technical mastery of the subject not to mention a strong sense of understanding of topic organization, focus placement, and section transition incites an impassioned, multidimensional jaunt into one-thousand years of rather complicated social dilemmas. The author appears proficient in point of practical knowledge and as such fit for the task.
His main arguments Davies advances Volume I with the fabled origins: the story of Lech, a ruler of the Polanie tribe, who formed the first "Polish" government at Gniezno when he found an eagles nest on that spot and determined it would be a favorable place for his people to settle. Several moons later Mieszko I effectively unites the varying local tribes into a single cohesive unit and adopts Christianity as a means to stave off the relentless, unabated invasions of his German neighbors.
Several centuries later, Poland designs a liberal Sejm government, delivers a convincing victory over the Teutonic knights at Grunwald (1410), erects a nationally recognized university (Jagiellonian 1386), forges a constitutional union with Lithuania (1569), lords over massive wealth from its flagship port city (Gdansk), initiates the Liberum Veto, saves Venice from the encroaching Turks (Jan Sobieski 1683), sulks in the 'Golden Age of Freedom', breeds marvelously superb people (Copernicus 1473), swathes it's borders from the 'Baltic to the Black', fights a lot, seemingly fights all the time in this book -- ONLY to be viciously partitioned by the prevailing despotic powers of the time (1773-95).
Davies clarity of reasoning serves him much justice as he poses reasons for total dissolution, namely:
1. The Polish Crown's deficiency can be attributed less to poor leadership than to the inflexibility of a system whose arteries were visibly hardening from a very liberal center
2. The Liberum Veto paralyzed a working government
3. Jan Sobieski's extensive campaigning against his enemies bankrupt the treasury and, as a result, caused whatever remained of the Sejm to cave in respectively
4. The Szlachta, or noble class, destroyed any last semblance of recovery
5. False sense of superiority: The very powers they branded as "feeble curiosities" partitioned them not once, but thrice (1773-95)
6. That at various times "Polish-ness" barely claimed two-thirds of the population
7. Class diversity polarized the social order from swift* unity
Volume II’s 648 pages or so present a well written, self-contained account furthering arguments of political disunity, the Liberum Veto, deep seated public mistrust, the rise of Romanticism, commitment to quarrelsome stupidities, and distasteful servitude. By this point I was able to see that, geographically speaking, Poland has been everywhere and nowhere. The borders have, with near regularity, been smudged, erased, or altered by some mechanism for centuries. Nevertheless, as Davies stresses, this is surely a country that is "unspoiled by the accidents of progress or the hazards of freedom."
A culture beset by incessant warfare and unworldly psychological defeat, to be pounded into periodic silence time after time by neighboring aggressors (to no avail) is something aloof to American culture. For a people to sustain such repeated political, social, and economic assaults by the likes of Czarist Russia for so long is noteworthy in it and of itself. Clearly, this is the first time in which a book has been so emotionally profound**, that I cannot help but hit my point home with poignant phrases and sentimental foibles.
Conclusion
As this is my personal interpretation generalized and spiced with some arbitrarily chosen highlights, it however closely parallels Davies’ framework as he suggests that the above said strands of internal and external conflict were suddenly twisted together into a web of strangulating complexity.
I finished both books wishing the author had provided more volumes focusing on certain aspects in parts rather than brilliantly brushing through each topic in sections (a little more on famous Poles like Copernicus, Curie, Chopin, Kosciuszko, and Mickiewicz would be nice too). Anyhow, Davies historical dexterity in Poland is a subject which has been so frequently and fully discussed, and so well understood, that it is unnecessary to enlarge upon them. For that reason I reinforce what I said earlier, that this IS the definitive work on the history of Poland written in ANY language TO DATE.
*I choose this word carefully because the various class realms came together under the direst circumstances; "speed" and "due process" is not in Polish political vocabulary.
**Because most often than not the other history books I read were moribund descriptive accounts of the past.
Recommended:
Yes
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SnowFalcon_CU
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Location: Boulder, CO
Reviews written: 14
Trusted by: 10 members
About Me:
Si hoc signum legere potes, operis boni in rebus Latinis alacribus et fructuosis potiri potes!*
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