A Concise History of Poland

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Cambridge University Press, Sep 20, 2001 - History - 317 pages
Poland only sporadically makes the headlines of the Anglo-Saxon world, and its history remains comparatively unknown. It has suffered the dubious distinction of being wiped off the political map in 1795, to be resurrected after the First World War, to suffer seeming annihilation during the Second World War, reduction to satellite status of the Soviet Union after 1945, only to emerge during the 1980s. It is presently a contender for membership in the European Union. The only general introduction to the politics of Polish history in English, The Concise History of Poland covers medieval times to the present. The authors describe how Polish society developed under foreign rule in the 19th century and how it was altered by and responded to 45 years of communism, and developments since its collapse. Primarily a political outline of Poland's turbulent and complex past, it traces the process of its rise and fall from the middle ages, from a dynastic realm to a remarkable constitutional experiment in multinational, consensual politics, embracing much of Lithuania, Ukraine, and Belarus. Jerzy Lukowski is Senior Lecturer in Modern History, School of Historical Studies, at the University of Birmingham, UK. He is also the author of, The Partitions of Poland (Addison Wesley, 1998), and Liberty's Folly (Routledge, 1991), and many journal articles. Herbert Zawadzki is Teacher of History at Abingodn School, in Abingdon, UK. He spent the first ten years of his life in various Polish resettlement camps across the length and breadth of Britain, eventually settling near Stratford-on-Avon. He has since traveled extensively in Poland, Belarus, and Lithuania. He has written for several journals and contributed to the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Russia and the former Soviet Union (1994).

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Contents

PIAS POLAND ?1385
3
JAGIELLONIAN POLLAND 13861572
33
THE COMMONWEALTH OF THE TWO NATIONS 15721795
66
Poland after 1795
107
CHALLENGING THE PARTITIONS 17951864
109
AN ERA OF TRANSFORMATION 18641914
155
INDEPENDENCE REGAINED AND LOST 19141945
190
COMMUNISM AND BEYOND 1945?
250
The Piast dynasty
290
The Jagiellonian dynasty
291
Elective rulers of the PolishLithuanian Commonwealth
292
Rulers of the partitioned Polish territories
293
List of heads of state presidents Communist Party leaders 19182000
294
Bibliography
296
Index
303
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