Poland by James A. Michener Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Poland
Book Review: Great read...but stunningly historically inaccurate.
Summary: 3 Stars
I loved reading the book. But when I got to the section around 1920, I was shocked! Michener (probably based on being brainwashed by his Polish nationalist informants and simply not checking his facts) has Russia invading Poland!Virtually all historians agree it was the other way around. To quote Isaac Babel:
Newly constituted as an independent nation after World War I, Poland sought to take advantage of the nascent Soviet state's upheaval to expand eastward, restoring its 1772 borders and its former stature...Jozef Pilsudski, leading the Poles, articulated the Polish mission both as a fulfillment of his country's historical destiny and as a crusade to save European civilization from the alien disease of Bolshevism....
Hostilities had begun in February 1919, in the wake of German withdrawal (after the November 1918 armistice) from the Russian-Polish borderlands...The Poles quickly acquired the upper hand. In April they took Vilna; in August, Minsk.... Polish troops kept moving, taking the Latvian city of Dvinsk in January 1920.
But many accounts date the beginning of the war to April of that year, when Poland moved deep into the Ukraine. On 6 May the Polish Army (aided by Ukrainian nationalist troops) took Kiev from the Reds."
In fact, in the treaty of Riga signed in 1921, Poland literally doubled its size, having unilaterally seized territory, some 80,000 square kilometers, from the Soviet Union.
Now that I see how wildly inaccurate Michener's storytelling is in this instance, I wonder about all the rest.
Be careful -- fun reading, but perhaps very poor history.
Book Review: Must Read
Summary: 5 Stars
Excellent book. Couldn't put it down once I started reading it. For those interested in European history, I highly recommend this.Book Review: Can't Put Down
Summary: 5 Stars
Read this while touring through southern Poland in 2003. Lent a tremendous a poignant insight to this highly understood country in the turbulent heart of Europe's history. Highly recommend tying this to a visit to Krakow's historical museum (Czartowski - spelling?) as well as the Jewish quarter and Auschwitz.Book Review: not a mere novel, but an experience
Summary: 5 Stars
James A. Michener's "Poland" is a historic fiction that spans eight hundred years. The story of three families is recounted from the 1200s to the 1980s. These families include the wealthy noble (Lubonski), poor gentry (Bukowski), and the peasant (Buk). Although it was hard for me to leave some of the characters behind as time moved on, the new ones in the next period turned out to be just as interesting.It is an interesting experience to read about how these three families developed through history and one gains a larger perspective on how families could progress to get to their present state.
This book is amazing because it reads easy like a novel, but also includes a great deal of history throughout the entire book. The reader becomes acquainted with nearly a thousand years of the colorful history of Poland. The details of the history of Poland are horrific, to the point that you wish they did not happen. I kept reminding myself that these events described, or ones similar to them, did happened. In the 800 years covered in the book, Poland was invaded by nearly all her neighbors. Among the many invaders, there were the Germans from the west, Russians from the east, Swedes from the north, and Austrians from the south, as well as invaders from more distant lands such as the Turks and Tartars. Important battles in Poland's history, such as Grunwald (1410), are described in detail.
If I had known how good this book was, I would have read it much sooner. This book is not a mere novel, but an experience.
Book Review: A good book but not a great book
Summary: 4 Stars
I compare this book to Noah Gordon's 'The Physician', which I found fantastic. I felt Michener's book just wasn't as good. Michener's characters just weren't that real. And his elaborate detailed descriptions of food and clothing annoyed me. What I liked best were his descriptions of the battles. Sobieski and the defeat of the Turks at Vienna captivated me. But even that somehow came across as a legend rather than as realistic history. The chapter on love and arranged marriages was very interesting. I guess my main criticism is that this book came across like the movie 'Braveheart'; which I wished were closer the the Britannica version of the Scottish hero. But I did feel that I learned a great deal from reading Michener's book - it did put Poland on the map for me.