A History of Poland (Palgrave Essential Histories)

Rating:
Summary: Works better as a reference aide than historical narrative.
Review: If you're looking for an interesting historical narrative about Poland, then "A History of Poland" misses the mark. Anita J. Prazmowska's attempt at encapsulating the country's history within two-hundred plus pages is a worthy, but an overambitious project. The entire book is as dense as a gross anatomy textbook whose main objective is to instill information. History to be understood needs to be spread out and have time to unwind its story. Unfortunately, Prazmowska injects the reader with one historical fact after another, therefore Poland's stories are packed as tight as the proverbial sardines in the tin can - no room has been allotted for expository writing to explain the meaning behind Poland's historical events. When the entire history of Poland's middle ages is contained in about thirty pages, one gets the feeling that some crucial information must have been left out. To further bog down the reader, the author's sentences are generally on the long side, forcing one to ingest loads of facts, dates and historical figures without a breather. For this reason, "A History of Poland" works well only as a reference book - a helpful index enables the reader to pinpoint the highlights of Polish history.