Writing Your Own History

We have received some emails bemoaning the lack of quality English language works regarding Central European history that are also not woefully out of date. While it’s true that the offering here is not as rich as it could be, there are some decent books that fit the bill.

For example, regarding Poland, we have the “eminently readable” newly updated version of Adam Zamoyski’s The Polish Way, now retitled “Poland, a History.” We don’t agree with everything in the book (how about a history of Poles as opposed to of Poland) but, hey, we don’t have to.

So, if you fear being rendered comatose by the lifeless print of internationalist ideologues like Norman Davies (and don’t want to fill the coffers of putschistic twiteratti like Paul Barford), buy Zamoyski’s book.

Of course, Poland is not a stand in for the entire region (though given the country’s changing borders the above manages to touch a bit upon Ukrainians, Belarussians, Lithuanians and others) and we still await similar books about the histories of other Central European nations.

The one thing that we are still waiting for is a serious work regarding the early history of the peoples of Central Europe. Certainly, that terrain ought not to be left to off the cuff nonsense (Schenker) or purposeful confabulations (Wolfram, Pohl & others).