Reviews of Books

Rising '44


"A detailed account of the August 1944 battle for control of Warsaw describes how the Polish Resistance mobilized to expel the Germans and discusses the tragic consequences of Stalin's halting of the Russian offensive, a move that cost the lives of thousands of Polish citizens and the destruction of the city." 

Reviews - Rising '44

Solving the Polish conundrum

Saturday 01 November 2003 Spectator Book Club, Adam Zamoyski

The Warsaw uprising of August 1944 was one of the most tragic episodes of the second world war, resulting in the destruction of the city and some 200,000 of its inhabitants. It is also one of the least well known.

At the crossroads

Saturday 15 November 2003 The Guardian, Angus McQueen

Davies has been widely recognised as the historian of that benighted country. Now he has used the forthcoming 60th anniversary of the uprising not only to provide a comprehensive account but to make us rethink the central trauma of the 20th century - the conflict between democracies and the totalitarian fantasies of fascism and communism.

The "First Ally" under siege

Monday 05 April 2004 The New Leader, Richard C. Hottelet

The romantic freedom of expression that has marked Poland’s history inspires British historician Norman Davies’s telling of the suffering its people endured during a heroic struggle against hopeless odds in the World War II. "Rising ’44" describes the efforts, 60 years ago this summer, of the Polish underground Home Army to wrest the capital city from German occupation. The book is a labor of love and an elegy for their tragic sacrifices.

Remember them

Monday 17 May 2004 The National Review, David Pryce-Jones

The issue of Polish freedom had after all started the World War, and Davies uses term First Ally as a synonym of Poland. 

Those streets over there

Thursday 24 June 2004 London Review of Books, John Connelly

On 1 August, the command of this army – the Home Army (AK) – sent its soldiers into action with the order to seize control of the capital, and to welcome Soviet forces from a position of strength. From that point, everything went wrong that could go wrong.

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