A History of Poland by Anita J. s> Prażmowska (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 755 Kristeva'sstance and workwould have benefitedfroma greaterrelianceupon the writingdone by and upon the expatriatewithin the Bulgariancontext. The academic critiqueof Westernrepresentationsof the Balkansprovidesa much-needed alternative to the facile optimism and complacency of certain political discoursesproduced within the region. However, to be able to fulfil this task successfully, scholars need to be more discriminating in their approach to differenttexts and authors. Erasingdifferencein order to attest denigration is not likely to lead us to a better understanding of the intricate natureof the relationshipsbetween the ever-changing Balkansand the 'West'. In closing, I'd like to stress the latter element: South-Eastern Europe is indeed currently undergoing massive changes as new alliances are being forgedand what Michael Ignatieffhas aptlytermed 'ethicsof emergency'(The Lesser Evil. PoliticalEthicsinanAgeof Terror, Edinburgh, 2004, pp. 25-54) is in fullswing.I wishthevolume'seditorand contributorshadpaid more attention to the impact of September II, 200I, which is intimately linked to some of those changes. On the other hand, despite my manifest disagreement with certain statementsand interpretativestrategies,I fullyacknowledgethe merit of the collection in provoking reflection on a variety of important moral, political and culturalissuesand in contributingto the ongoing dialogue about the Balkansand theirrepresentations. Department ofEnglish andAmerican Studies LUDMILLAKoSTOVA University of Veliko Turnovo, Bulgaria Prazmowska, Anita J. A HistogyofPoland.Palgrave Essential Histories. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke and New York, 2004. xii + 242 pp. Maps. Index. ? I4.99 (paperback). THIS is a recent addition to the Palgrave Essential Histories Series under the General Editor Jeremy Black, which aims at presenting compact, readable and informative national histories of a whole range of countries for general readers. As the interest in the past of the countries which succeeded in freeing themselves from Communist domination and have recently become members of the European Union is growing, a volume on the history of Poland should be a valuable one. Yet, the author faces a real challenge. Poland's history is complex, in several ways unique; its course is both impressive and tragic, characterized by periods of greatness as well as political and economic decay, moments of triumphs and national disasters. Prazmowska presents Polish history in ten chapters of almost identical length, but covering periods of varying length. The titles and the contents of the individual chapters allow her, however, to examine the character of different aspects of particular events and trends from a number of perspectives: political, social, economic as well as cultural. Her analysis is, in the eyes of this reviewer, accurate and objective. The tendentious character of many earlier books on Polish history is thus avoided. The Poles can be seen neither as the chief architects of their own disasters nor, invariably, as the innocent victims of foreign intrigues and evil machinations of foreign powers. The importance of both these factors at work is nonetheless clearly evaluated 756 SEER, 83, 4, 2005 and considered to be of consequence. This makes the book quite interesting and useful for furtherdiscussionsconcerning several controversialaspects of political, social, religious, cultural and economic dimensions of national life. There lies the realvalue of the book. Alas, the book also possessesmajor shortcomings.The most serious one is that it lacks a bibliography. In addition, numerous incorrect spellings, particularlyin the Index, areasirritatingastheyareinexcusable.Forexample, Chlopifnski, Jaruzelki, Kolakowsko,Legnice, Pradzifiski,Swaitio, Wielkopolski , Zulwy, Wittenburg, etc., etc. The titles of Copernicus' and Maciej of Miech6w's worksare given in incorrect Latin. There is also no uniformityin the names of the personslistedin the Index. Forno apparentreason, some are just surnames,some consist of both the firstand last names. Surprisingly,the maps taken from ThePalgrave Concise Historical Atlas of EasternEurope(Basingstoke , 200I) contain misspelled names of important Belarusian towns: Vitsebsk and Polatsk (pp. ix, xi and xii). Polish names are all, impressively, printedin theirauthenticPolishspelling,though printing'e' with the diacritic following the character ('ej') spoils the exercise. It is a great pity that shortcomingsof thiskinddetractfromthe realimportanceof the book. London J.J. TOMIAK Szvak, Gyula (ed.). MoskovskaiaRus'. spetsifikarazvitiia. Ruszisztikai Konyvek, 13. Magyar Ruszisztikai Intezet, Budapest, 2003. 222 pp. Notes. Price unknown. THIs volume contains selected papers presented at the international conference of historians in the Centre for Russian Studies of Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest in May 2002. The papers of scholars from Hungary, Russia, the United Kingdom, the...