Heart of Europe: The Past in Poland's PresentThe 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. |
Contents
1 | |
Polands Wartime Experience 19391947 | 55 |
Polands Experiment in Independence 19141939 | 95 |
Poland during the Partitions 17951918 | 138 |
Poland before 1795 | 245 |
The Past in Polands Present | 312 |
Reflections in the mid1980s | 392 |
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Common terms and phrases
affairs Allied Austrian camp Catholic cent Church Comecon Communism comrades Congress Kingdom country’s Cracow Defence democracy democratic Dmowski Duchy East Eastern Europe economic émigrés Empire European forces foreign Galicia Gdan´sk German Gomułka independent insurrectionary Jaruzelski King leaders Legions liberal Lithuania London Lwów Mickiewicz Minister modern Moscow movement nationalist Nazi nineteenth century nomenklatura Norman Davies November Rising official ofits ofPoland ofPolish ofsolidarity ofthe ofthe Polish oftheir old Republic one’s organization Party Party’s patriotic peasants People’s Republic Piast Piłsudski Poland Poles Polish Army Polish communists Polish Government Polish language Polish nation Polish political Polish society Positivists post-war pre-war PZPR reform regime resistance Roman Dmowski Romantic ruling Russian Sanacja Sejm Słowacki social socialist solidarity Soviet Army Soviet Bloc Soviet Union Stalin Stanisław Szlachta tion tradition Tsar Tsarist Ukrainian USSR Wałe˛sa Warsaw Pact Warsaw Rising wartime West Western whilst Wilno Władysław workers