Poland: The First Thousand Years by Patrice M. Dabrowski

Two different books before and after the Enlightenment

My interest in Poland springs from my partial Polish heritage. Researching my family’s history led me to an interest in Polish history, literature, and film. Unlike the history of some Western European countries such as England, France, or Italy, however, Poland’s past is not common knowledge taught in America’s schools. It can be difficult to appreciate a nation’s arts and letters when one doesn’t have the historical context upon which its cultural works are based. For a while, therefore, I’ve kept my eyes open for a concise yet comprehensive history of Poland, one that’s neither too academic nor too dumbed-down for the layman. I found what I was looking for with Patrice Dabrowski’s 2014 book Poland: The First Thousand Years. This history nails the sweet spot where erudition and accessibility meet. For her distinguished career as a scholar in Polish studies, Dabrowski was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland in 2014.

Thematically and stylistically, Dabrowski’s Poland reads as if it were two different books stuck together between the covers of one volume. The dividing line is the Polish Constitution of May 3, 1791, which occurs about 60 percent of the way through the book. Everything up to that point is an old-school royal history. It’s all about the succession of kings from one to the next, along with the battles, royal marriages, and elections that influenced the path to the throne. One gets almost no idea of what life was like for the Poles who were not high up on the ladder of nobility. This portion of the book reads a lot like a high school history textbook (if there were a high school course devoted exclusively to Poland). The text, though very informative, relates events in a rather cursory, just-the-facts fashion that imparts the necessary names, dates, and places to the reader. There isn’t much analysis beyond these facts, no social history, and Dabrowski doesn’t really elucidate any broader historical trends or push any thesis. I suspect this approach is due to what’s available in the historical record from these earlier centuries and the sheer volume of a millennium of events that Dabrowski feels she’s obligated to cram into one volume.

After the 1791 constitution, however, this becomes a totally different book, and a much better one. While Dabrowski still manages to deliver the names, dates, and places of all the important historical events, the writing in the book’s latter half is much more thoughtful and penetrating. All facets of Polish history and society are covered. The reader gets a vivid impression of what life was like for Poles of all classes and backgrounds. The text reads as if Dabrowski were actually shaping the historiography of Poland (as she should be, since she’s a historian and an expert in this area) rather than just relating events. Her coverage of the 19th and 20th centuries is everything that anyone interested in Polish history could hope for­—comprehensive, fascinating, erudite, and thought-provoking.

I’m not a historian, but I imagine the one-volume history, as a scholarly endeavor, is a bit of a thankless job. The author is expected to include everything, and for every event she discusses there’s a scholarly monograph that examines it more deeply and thoroughly. Nevertheless, it takes a very knowledgeable scholar and a very competent writer to put together an all-encompassing synthesis that’s suitable for general readers but also passes muster among academicians. Dabrowski deserves commendation for her formidable achievement in compiling and composing this welcome history of Poland. The reader comes away with a very enlightening education in that nation’s turbulent past.  

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