Poland

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The Polish flag consists of two equal horizontal bands of white (top) and red.[1]

The Republic of Poland (Polish: Rzeczpospolita Polska) is a large Slavic nation in Central Europe. Its history stretches 1000 years, with interruptions when it was controlled or even divided up by powerful neighbors. It is a member of the European Union and NATO.

Geography

Poland in 2007.

Poland is located in Central Europe and occupies a total area of 312,679 square kilometers. It is bordered by Belarus, the Czech Republic, Germany, Lithuania, a Russian exclave Kaliningrad Oblast, Slovakia, and Ukraine. Poland is predominantly open plains, with the natural borders of the Carpathian Mountains to the south and the Baltic Sea to the north.

Demography

"Peasants of Podolia," Poland about 1860 by Kanhart.[2]

Language, Religion, Culture

Religion was a mainstay of Polish identity for a thousand years. It was a refuge from Communist rule, and before that an act of defiance against Prussians and Russians. As the rest of Europe secularized in the late 20th century, the Catholic faith grew stronger in Poland, symbolized by the selection of Karol Cardinal Wojtyła, Archbishop of Kraków, as Pope John Paul II in 1978. Unlike the rest of Europe, the men of Poland were religious, as were the workers, peasants and middle classes. They disobeyed church edicts on birth control and abortion, but they practiced the rituals faithfully.[3] By the late 1980s, a third of all priests ordained in Europe were from Poland.[4]

Economy

Politics

History

See Poland, History

Bibliography

  • Library of Congress. A Country Study: Poland (1993), highly detailed factual report by U.S. government (it is in the public domain, with no copyright) online edition
  • Poland (Eyewitness Travel Guides by DK Publishing) (2007)
  • Parkinson, Tom, Richard Watkins, and Neil Wilson. Lonely Planet Poland (2005) online excerpt and search from Amazon.com
  • Podgórecki, Adam. Polish Society Praeger, 1994 online edition
  • Turnock, David. The Human Geography of East Central Europe. Routledge. 2002. online edition

Historical surveys and reference

  • Biskupski, M. B. The History of Poland. Greenwood, 2000. 264 pp. online edition
  • Bromke, Adam. The Meaning and Uses of Polish History. East European Monographs, 1987. 244 pp.
  • The Cambridge History of Poland (two vols., 1941- 1950) online edition vol 1 to 1696
  • Davies, Norman. Heart of Europe: A Short History of Poland. Oxford University Press, 1984. 511 pp. excerpt and text search
  • Davies, Norman. God's Playground: A History of Poland. 2 vol. Columbia U. Press, 1982. 1,189 pp.; highly detailed, well-written narrative but criticized by some specialists online excerpts and search at Amazon.com; vol 1 to 1795
  • Frucht, Richard. Encyclopedia of Eastern Europe: From the Congress of Vienna to the Fall of Communism Garland Pub., 2000 online edition
  • Kenney, Padraic. “After the Blank Spots Are Filled: Recent Perspectives on Modern Poland,” Journal of Modern History Volume 79, Number 1, March 2007 pp 134-61, historiography
  • Kloczowski, Jerzy. A History of Polish Christianity. Cambridge U. Pr., 2000. 385 pp.
  • Leslie, R. F. et al. The History of Poland since 1863. Cambridge U. Press, 1980. 494 pp.
  • Lerski, George J. Historical Dictionary of Poland, 966-1945. Greenwood, 1996. 750 pp. online edition
  • Lewinski-Corwin, Edward Henry. The Political History of Poland (1917), well-illustrated; 650pp online at books.google.com
  • Lukowski, Jerzy and Zawadzki, Hubert. A Concise History of Poland. Cambridge U. Press, 2nd ed 2006. 408pp. excerpts and search
  • Pogonowski, Iwo Cyprian. Poland: A Historical Atlas. Hippocrene, 1987. 321 pp.
  • Prazmowska, Anita. A History of Poland. Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. 242 pp.
  • Roos, Hans. A History of Modern Poland (1966)
  • Sanford, George. Historical Dictionary of Poland. Scarecrow Press, 2003. 291 pp.
  • Wróbel, Piotr. Historical Dictionary of Poland, 1945-1996. Greenwood, 1998. 397 pp.
  • Zamoyski, Adam. The Polish Way. A Thousand-Year History of the Poles and their Culture. J. Murray, 1987. 422 pp.; heavily illustrated excerpt and text search


History: before 1900

  • Blanke, Richard. Prussian Poland in the German Empire, 1871-1900. Columbia U. Press, 1981. 268 pp.
  • Bogucka, Maria. Women in Early Modern Polish Society: Against the European Background. Ashgate, 2004. 192 pp
  • Butterwick, Richard, ed. The Polish-Lithuanian Monarchy in European Context, c. 1500-1795. Palgrave, 2001. 249 pp. online edition
  • Frost, Robert I. After the Deluge: Poland-Lithuania and the Second Northern War 1655-1660. Cambridge U. Press, 1993. 211 pp.
  • Górecki, Piotr. Economy, Society, and Lordship in Medieval Poland, 1100-1250 Holmes & Meier, 1992 online edition
  • Lukowski, Jerzy. Liberty's Folly: The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Eighteenth Century, 1697-1795. Routledge, 1991. 316 pp.
  • Morfill, William Richard. Poland (1900) online at books.google.com
  • Stauter-Halsted, Keely. The Nation in the Village: The Genesis of Peasant National Identity in Austrian Poland, 1848-1914. Cornell U. Press, 2001. 272 pp.
  • Stone, Daniel. The Polish-Lithuanian State, 1386-1795. U. of Washington Press, 2001. 374 pp.
  • Trzeciakowski, Lech. The Kulturkampf in Prussian Poland. Columbia U. Press, 1990. 223 pp.
  • Urban, William. Tannenberg and After: Lithuania, Poland, and the Teutonic Order in Search of Immortality. Lithuanian Research and Studies Center, 1999. 500 pp.
  • Walicki, Andrzej. The Enlightenment and the Birth of Modern Nationhood: Polish Political Thought from Noble Republicanism to Tadeusz Kosciuszko. U. of Notre Dame Press, 1989. 152 pp.
  • Weeks, Theodore R. Nation and State in Late Imperial Russia: Nationalism and Russification on the Western Frontier. Northern Illinois U. Press, 1996. 297 pp.


20th century

  • Chodakiewicz, Marek Jan. Between Nazis and Soviets: Occupation Politics in Poland, 1939-1947. Lexington, 2004. 497 pp.
  • Diskin, Hanna. The Seeds of Triumph: Church and State in Gomulka's Poland. Central European U. Press, 2001. 317 pp.
  • Dziewanowski, M. K. Poland in the Twentieth Century Columbia University Press. online edition
  • Garlicki, Andrzej. Józef Pilsudski, 1867-1935. 2nd abridged ed. Brookfield, Vt.: Scolar, 1995. 199 pp
  • Garlinski, Józef. Poland in the Second World War. Hippocrene, 1985. 387 pp.
  • Hempel, Andrew. Poland in World War II: An Illustrated Military History Hippocrene, 2005
  • Hunter, Richard J. and Ryan, Leo V. From Autarchy to Market: Polish Economics and Politics, 1945-1995. Praeger, 1998. 287 pp.
  • Jedrzejewicz, Waclaw. Pilsudski: A Life for Poland. Hippocrene Books, 1982. 385 pp.
  • Kacewicz, George. Great Britain, the Soviet Union and the Polish Government-in-Exile, 1939-45 (1979)
  • Kenney, Padraic. Rebuilding Poland: Workers and Communists, 1945-1950. Cornell U. Press, 1997. 360 pp. excerpt and text search
  • Landau, Zbigniew and Tomaszewski, Jerzy. The Polish Economy in the Twentieth Century. St. Martin's, 1985. 346 pp.
  • Latawski, Paul, ed. The Reconstruction of Poland, 1914-23. St. Martin's, 1992. 217 pp.
  • Peszke, Michael Alfred. "An Introduction to English-Language Literature on the Polish Armed Forces in World War II," The Journal of Military History 70 (October 2006) pp. 1029-1064. in Project Muse
  • Peszke, Michael Alfred and Piotr Stefan Wandycz. The Polish Underground Army, the Western Allies, and the Failure of Strategic Unity in World War II (2004) excerpt and text search
  • Rossino, Alexander B. Hitler Strikes Poland: Blitzkrieg, Ideology, and Atrocity. U. Press of Kansas, 2003. 360 pp.
  • Stachura, Peter D. Poland in the Twentieth Century. Macmillan, 1999. 180 pp. excerpt and text search
  • Stachura, Peter D. Poland, 1918-1945: An Interpretive and Documentary History of the Second Republic. (2004) online edition; excerpt and text search
  • Sword, Keith, ed. Sikorski: Soldier and Statesman. Orbis, 1990. 224 pp.
  • Terry, Sarah Meiklejohn. Poland's Place in Europe: General Sikorski and the Origin of the Oder-Neisse Line, 1939-43 (1982).
  • Watt, Richard M. Bitter Glory: The History of Independent Poland, 1918-1939. (1979). 512 pp. excerpt and text search
  • Wiles, Timothy, ed. Poland between the Wars: 1918-1939. Indiana U. Polish Studies Center, 1989.

Recent history since 1980

  • Bernhard, Michael H. The Origins of Democratization in Poland: Workers, Intellectuals and Oppositional Politics, 1976-1980 (1993)
  • Connor, Walter D. and Piotr Ploszajski, eds. The Polish Road from Socialism: The Economics, Sociology and Politics of Transition (1992)
  • Hunter, Richard J. and Ryan, Leo V. From Autarchy to Market: Polish Economics and Politics, 1945-1995. Praeger, 1998. 287 pp.
  • Kolodko, Grzegorz W., ed. The Polish Miracle: Lessons for the Emerging Markets. Ashgate, 2005. 295 pp.
  • Kurski, Jaroslaw. Lech Walesa: Democrat or Dictator? (1993), 178 pp.
  • Kwitny, Jonathan. Man of the Century: The Life and Times of Pope John Paul II. H. Holt, 1997. 754 pp.
  • Lepak, Keith John. Prelude to Solidarity: Poland and the Politics of the Gierek Regime. Columbia U. Press, 1988. 271 pp.
  • Millard, Frances. Polish Politics and Society. Routledge, 1999. 232 pp.
  • Millard, Frances. "Presidents and Democratization in Poland: the Roles of Lech Walesa and Aleksander Kwasniewski in Building a New Polity." Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics 2000 16(3): 39-62. Issn: 1352-3279 Fulltext in Ebsco
  • Ost, David. The Defeat of Solidarity: Anger and Politics in Postcommunist Europe. Cornell U. Press, 2005. 238 pp.
  • Sanford, George. Democratic Government in Poland: Constitutional Politics since 1989. Palgrave, 2002. 256 pp.
  • Simon, Jeffrey. Poland and NATO: A Study in Civil-Military Relations. Rowman and Littlefield, 2004. 195 pp.
  • Staar, ed. Richard F. Transition to Democracy in Poland (1993)

Society and Culture

  • Bartal, Israel. The Jews of Eastern Europe, 1772-1881. U. of Pennsylvania Press, 2005. 203 pp.
  • Braun, Jerzy, ed. Poland in Christian Civilization. London: Veritas, 1985. 633 pp.
  • Braun, Kazimierz. A Concise History of Polish Theater from the Eleventh to the Twentieth Centuries. E. Mellen, 2003. 474 pp.
  • Braun, Kazimierz. A History of Polish Theater, 1939-1989: Spheres of Captivity and Freedom. Greenwood, 1996. 233 pp.
  • Carpenter, Bogdana, ed. Monumenta Polonica, the First Four Centuries of Polish Poetry: A Bilingual Anthology. Ann Arbor: Michigan Slavic Pub., 1989. 567 pp.
  • Cavanaugh, Jan. Out Looking In: Early Modern Polish Art, 1890-1918. U. of California Press, 2000. 307 pp.
  • Corrsin, Stephen. Warsaw before the First World War: Poles and Jews in the Third City of the Russian Empire, 1880-1914. East European Monographs, 1989. 183 pp.
  • Czerwinski, E. J., ed. Dictionary of Polish Literature. Greenwood, 1994. 488 pp.
  • Czekanowska, Anna. Polish Folk Music: Slavonic Heritage, Polish Tradition, Contemporary Trends. Cambridge U. Press, 1990. 226 pp.
  • Eisenbach, Artur. The Emancipation of the Jews in Poland, 1780-1870. Blackwell, 1991. 632 pp.
  • Elie, Stanislaw. Literature and Nationalism in Partitioned Poland, 1795-1918. U. of London, School of Slavonic and East European Studies; 2000. 234 pp.
  • Falkowska, Janina. Andrzej Wajda: History, Politics, and Nostalgia in Polish Cinema (2006) excerpt and text search
  • Fiszman, Samuel, ed. The Polish Renaissance in Its European Context. Indiana U. Press, 1988. 478 pp.
  • Ford, Charles and Hammond, Robert; with Kudy, Grazyna. Polish Film: A Twentieth Century History. McFarland, 2005. 354 pp.
  • Haltof, Marek. Polish National Cinema. Berghahn Books, 2002. 304 pp.
  • Janowski, Maciej. Polish Liberal Thought before 1918. Central European U. Press, 2004. 282 pp.
  • Jedlicki, Jerzy. A Suburb of Europe: Nineteenth-Century Polish Approaches to Western Civilization. Central European U. Press, 1999. 307 pp
  • Kurczaba, Alex S., ed. Conrad and Poland. East European Monographs, 1996. 258 pp.
  • Martin, Sean. Jewish Life in Cracow, 1918-1939. London: Vallentine Mitchell, 2005. 276 pp
  • MioszŁ, CzesŁaw History of Polish Literature (2nd ed 1983), 570pp
  • Ostrowski, Jan K. et al. Land of the Winged Horsemen: Art in Poland, 1572-1764. Yale U. Press, 1999. 380 pp
  • Pelinka, Anton. Politics of the Lesser Evil: Leadership, Democracy and Jaruzelski's Poland. Transaction Books, 1999. 259 pp.
  • Segel, Harold B. Renaissance Culture in Poland: The Rise of Humanism, 1470-1543. Cornell U. Press, 1989. 285 pp.
  • Sokol, Stanley S. The Artists of Poland: A Biographical Dictionary from the 14th Century to the Present. McFarland, 2000. 263 pp.
  • Suchodolski, Bogdan. History of Polish Culture. Warsaw: Interpress, 1986. 256 pp. lavishly illustrated
  • Thomas, Adrian. Polish Music since Szymanowski. Cambridge U. Press, 2005. 384 pp.
  • Thomas, William Isaac, and Florian Znaniecki. The Polish Peasant in Europe and America; Monograph of an Immigrant Group 2 vol (1920) one of the great classics of American sociology; online at books.google.com
  • Trochimczyk, Maja, ed. After Chopin: Essays in Polish Music. Polish Music Center, 2000. 333 pp.

External Sources

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ The colors are somewhat problematic since there is no consensus what are the "correct" colors for the computer screen; this version comes from the CIA World Factbook. Compare with pictures proposed by Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs [1] and the presidential website.[2] For more details see Flag of Poland.
  2. ↑ in Henry Sutherland Edwards, The Polish Captivity (1863) p. 175 at [3]
  3. ↑ In the 1970s there were over 200,000 abortions a year (compared to 600,000 live births), but highly restrictive laws drasticaly reduced the number of abortions after 1988. See Wm. Robert Johnston, "Historical abortion statistics, Poland," (2007) at [4]
  4. ↑ Stanislaw Gomulka and Antony Polonsky, eds., Polish Paradoxes (1991), pp 237-60
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