(See beginning of Part I of this Bibliography, to 1914).
New: ENCYCLOPEDIA OF EASTERN EUROPE. From the Congress of Vienna to the Fall of Communism, edited by Richard Frucht, Garland Publishing, Inc., New York and London, 2000.
(Richard Frucht, of Northwest Missouri State University, a specialist in Modern Balkan History, is to be congratulated on coordinating and editing the work of many contributors. The longer history entries on countries are of high quality. However, it is regrettable that in such an important reference work with specialists in Czech Hungarian and Romanian history on the Advisory Board, there was no specialist on Polish history. It is not surprising, therefore, that some of the shorter entries on Poland are unsatisfactory. Two examples will suffice: Katyn, gives the number of Polish prisoners murdered there in spring 1940 as 15, 000, although this is the old total number of Poles from the 3 special camps, who were shot in different locations, and there is no mention of the Russian documents published in English and Polish in 1992-2001. 2. the entry for Teschen speaks of Polish seizure of part of the area, but omits the local Polish and Czech National Councils' agreement of 5 November 1918 on an ethnic demarcation line leaving the then preponderantly Polish-speaking part of Western Teschen or "Zaolzie" on the Polish side. For short items relating to Poland up to 1945, it is advisable to consult: George J. Lerski, Historical Dictionary of Poland, 966-1945, Greenwood Press, Westport CT, and London, 1996; for the period 1945-1996, see: Piotr Wrobel, Historical Dictionary of Poland, 1945-1996, Westport CT, 1996.
(A). General Surveys of the Region, 1914-39
R. J. Crampton, Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century, London, New York, Routledge 1996.
(For information on author, see Pt. I Historical Atlases). This is a very good, brief history beginning with pre-World War I period and ending with the revolutions of 1989-91, with a very good, up-to-date bibliography. There are some errors. e. g. the secret Polish Military Organization, POW, is confused with Jozef Pilsudski's Polish Legion; the underground military organization, POW, was not dissolved, but founded in Aug. 1914 p. 10.
Joseph Held, ed., The Columbia History of Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century, New York, Columbia University Press, 1992
Joseph Held (b. 1930) is of Hungarian origin. The book has chapters by country, mostly by historians, but also political scientists; there is a schematic, bare bones sketch of Polish history. The selective bibliography is undifferentiated by period or topic, but includes maps of the region: 1914, 1923, 1945 and a useful chronology for May 1918-December 1990.
(B). Economic History of the Region
Ivan T. Berend and Gyorgy Ranki, Economic Development in East Central Europe in the 19th and 20th Centuries, New York, Columbia University Press, 1974
Written by two Hungarian economic historians (Ranki d. 1988), this is a good survey, but with almost exclusive emphasis on the Danubian basin.
M. C. Kaser and E. A. Radice, eds., The Economic History of Eastern Europe 1919-1975, 3 vols., Oxford, Oxford University press, 1985, 1986.
An excellent, detailed history by specialists; vols. 1, 2, cover the interwar and vol. 3, the post-World War II. period. At the time of publication, M. C. Kaser was a Professorial Fellow at St. Anthony's College, Oxford; E. A. Radice, C. B. E., became a Fellow at the same college afer a distinguished career in government service.
Wojciech Roszkowski, Land Reforms in East Central Europe after World War One, Warsaw, 1995.
The author is a prolific Polish historian in ISPPAN (the Institute of Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences), Warsaw, and from the Fall of 2,000 to 2003, holder of the Kosciuszko Chair of Polish Studies at the Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA. The book covers land reform in the Baltic states, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and in the Balkan countries with special attention to Romania, also the economic, social and political effects of the reform.
(For other histories, see under period and country; for Balkan countries, see under Balkans).
1. The Jews of Interwar Eastern Europe
Lucjan Dobroszycki and Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, IMAGE BEFORE MY EYES. A Photographic History of Jewish Life in Poland Before the Holocaust, New York, Shocken Books, 1977.
Fascinating photographic record of Jewish life on Polish territories from the mid- 19th century to 1939, with commentary by L. Dobroszycki (1926-1996), an outstanding scholar of Polish-Jewish origin.
Educated in Poland; he worked for many years at the Yivo Institute, New York.
Roman Vishniac, with foreword by Elie Wiesel, A VANISHED WORLD, New York, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1983.
Moving photographs of Jewish life taken in late 1930s Poland, Slovakia, Subcarpathian Ruthenia. R. Vishniac was born in the Jewish Pale, Russia, then lived in Germany and U. S.
2. East European Jews after World War II.
Remnants. The Last Jews of Poland, Written by Malgorzata Niezabitowska, Photographed by Tomasz Tomaszewski. Translated from the Polish by William Brand and Hanna Dobosiewicz, New York, 1986.
Moving portraits of mostly elderly Polish Jews in the mid-1980s; excellent interviews and photographs.
Section 3. World War I. The Great Powers
(A). Austria-Hungary in the War and its Collapse, October-November 1918
The Austrian History Yearbook, 1967, pt. 3 : "The Disintegration of the Monarchy," (articles by Hajo Holborn, Victor S. Mamatey, Hans Kohn).
This is an excellent collection of articles, originally papers read at a conference held at Indiana University, Bloomington, IN. Hajo Holborn (1902-1969) was an American historian of German origin, who left Germany when Hitler came to power. He taught at Yale University. V. S. Mamatey (b. North Braddock, PA, 1917) is an American historian of Russia and Eastern Europe. Hans Kohn (1891-1971) was an American historian of Jewish origin born in Prague, who wrote on Nationalism and always regretted the passing of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Austrian History Yearbook, v. IV-V, 1968-69 (articles by Fritz Fellner, Robert F. Hopwood, Alfred D. Low, Stefan Pascu, and Comments, pp. 3-100).
Fritz Fellner is an Austrian historian; Alfred D. Low [b. Vienna, 1913] is an American historian of E. Europe. Stefan Pascu (b. Cluj, Transylvania, 1913) is of Romanian origin.
F. R. Bridge, THE HABSBURG MONARCHY AMONG THE GREAT POWERS, 1815-1918, Oxford, Munich, Berg, and New York, St. Martin's Press, 1990 (ch. 8, 9).
E. R. Bridge, is a specialist on the History of the Habsburg Empire and on British foreign policy. At the time of publication, he was Reader in International History, University of Leeds. The focus is on international relations; the book has 16 portraits of Habsburg monarchs and statesmen, maps, also a good bibliography.
Arthur J. May, The Passing of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914-1918, 2 vols., Philadelphia, University of Philadelphia Press, 1966.
Detailed study, by an American historian written with sympathy for the empire. For more recent evaluations, see:
Alan Sked, THE DECLINE OF THE HABSBURG EMPIRE. 1815-1918, New York, Dorset Press, 1989 (ch. 6).
Alan Sked, was at the time of publication, Senior Lecturer in International History, London School of Economics and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. His book focuses on domestic history. There is a useful chronology and maps, but no bibliography.
Clifford F. Wargelin, "The Economic Collapse of Austro-Hungarian Dualism," East European Quarterly, vol. XXXIV no. 3, Fall 2000, pp. 261-288.
The author contends that it was not only the strain of war on the economy of Austria-Hungary which led to its collapse, but also, and even more, the fact that the dual system itself was outdated, reactionary and unable to secure the economic development of the Empire.
For studies by participants, see:
Oscar Jaszi, The Disssolution of the Habsburg Monarchy, Chicago, 1929, reprint Phoenix edition, Chicago, 1961.
Analysis by a sociologist and liberal Hungarian politician, who dreamed of a liberal Hungary leading a Danubian federation. After the First World War, he taught at the University of Chicago.
Count Michael Karolyi, Fighting the World: The Struggle for Peace, London, 1924, 2nd ed., London, 1956, New York, 1957.
M. Karolyi (1875-1955), was a Hungarian politician, head of H. govt. Nov. 1918 and briefly President of Hungary (early 1919). He had supported a separate peace in WWI, later tried but failed to keep old Hungary together with extensive cultural rights for minorities.
B. German policy in World War I
Fritz Fischer, Germany's Aims in the First World War, With Introduction by Hajo Holborn and James Joll, New York, Norton, 1967.
Fritz Fischer (1908-1999) was a prominent German historian. His thesis that Germany was most responsible for the outbreak of war in 1914, and that her war aims were imperialistic, aroused great controversy, esp. among German historians. For his replies to factual and methodological criticism, see:
Fritz Fischer, WORLD POWER OR DECLINE. The Controversy over Germany's Aims in the First World War, New York, Norton, 1974.
Same: WAR OF ILLUSIONS. German Policies from 1911 to 1914, transl Marion Jackson, New York, Norton, 1975.
C. British attitudes toward Austria-Hungary and E. Europe in World War I
Kenneth J. Calder, Britain and the Origins of the New Europe, 1914-1918, Cambridge, University Press, 1976.
A very useful study by an English historian, based on British archival sources.
Wilfried Fest, PEACE OR PARTITION. The Habsburg Monarchy and British Policy, 1914-1918, New York, St. Martin's Press, 1978.
A thorough treatment of the subject based on archival sources by a German scholar.
Harry Hanak, Great Britain and Austria Hungary During the First World War. A Study in the Formation of Public Opinion, London, Oxford University Press, 1962.
An excellent study of the subject based on a thorough analysis of the British press, various national and British publications, also private British collections. H. Hanak is a British historian of Hungarian origin.
Harold I. Nelson, LAND AND POWER. British and Allied Policy on Germany's Frontiers, 1916-1919, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1963.
A pioneering study in diplomatic history by a Canadian author who taught at the University of Toronto, based on American and Canadian archival collections.
Hugh and Christopher Seton-Watson, THE MAKING OF A NEW EUROPE. R. W. Seton- Watson and the last years of Austria-Hungary, Seattle, WA, University of Washington, Press, 1981.
R. W. Seton-Watson (1879-1951), was the first, and to date, the most prominent British expert on Eastern Europe. His two sons, both historians (Hugh died in the early 1990s), give an account of his studies and activities in the region between 1905 and 1919, citing his correspondence. He knew the leaders of, and was the spokesman for the Czechs, Serbs, Croats, and Romanians. The title of the book comes from the periodical he published and wrote for, with the goal of informing educated Britons about this part of Europe. (See also his correspondence with Yugoslavs and Romanians in section on the Balkans, below).
D. U. S. policy towards East Central and Souteastern Europe in World War I.
M.B.B. Biskupski, "Strategy, Politics, and Suffering: The Wartime Relief of Belgium, Serbia and Poland, 19124-1918," in,
same, ed., Ideology, Politics and Diplomacy in East Central Europe, University of Rochester Press, 2003, pp. 31-57.
Biskupski holds the Chair of Polish and Polish American History at the Central State University of Connecticut, New Britain, CT.
V. S. Mamatey, The United States and East Central Europe, 1914-1918: A Study in Wilsonian Diplomacy and Propaganda, Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 1957.
A pioneering study on the subject by an American historian.
E. Russian policy in World War I
Ronald Bobroff, "Devolution in Wartime: Sergei D. Sazonov and the Future of Poland," International History Review, vol. XXII, no. 3, 2000, pp. 505-528.
Author shows the politics of the Polish Question in Russian policy, and that Foreign Minister Sergei D. Sazonov's plans to gain Polish and Western support for Russia by granting autonomy to the Poles of Russian Poland were finally canceled by Tsar Nicholas II; some archival documents are cited. Bobroff was then a graduate student in 19-20th century Russian History and International Relations at Duke University, Durham, N.C.
Alexander Dallin et al, eds., Russian Diplomacy and Eastern Europe, 1914-1917, New York, King's Crown Press, 1963.
Good surveys, especially on Russian policy and aims regarding Poland and Austria- Hungary. Alexander Dallin (b. Berlin, 1924, d. California 2000) was an American historian of 20th c. international relations, esp. Russian; he was a Senior Fellow at the Institute of International Studies, Stanford, CA.
Wiktor Sukiennicki, East Central Europe During World War I: From Foreign Domination to National Independence, 2 vols., edited by Maciej Siekierski, East European Monographs, CXIX, 1984. This detailed work deals mainly with the policy of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia toward the Poles, Belorussians, Ukrainians, also the Baltic peoples; it has useful translations from hard-to-find documents. W. Sukiennicki (1901-1983) studied, then taught law at the Stefan Batory University, Wilno/Vilnius; was deported to the USSR 1940-42, then worked in Great Britain, then Radio Free Europe, and lastly at the Hoover Institution, Stanford, CA, 1959 ff. Maciej Siekierski (b. 1949), an American scholar of Polish descent, is the curator of East European collections in the Hoover Institution Archives and Library, Stanford, CA.
F. War and Society in Eastern Europe in World War I, (covering the Empires and nations of the region):
Bela K. Kiraly and Nandor F. Dreisziger, eds., East Central European Society in World War I, , vol. XIX, New York, 1985.
This is part of a very valuable series. B. F. Kiraly (b. Budapest, 1912) was Commander of the Hungarian garrison Budapest, 1956, then emigrated to U. S. where he became a historian; he returned to Budapest after the collapse of communism in E.Europe. N. Dreisziger is a Canadian scholar of Hungarian origin.
G. Jewish views/goals regarding future Eastern Europe, also British policy on:
Eugene C. Black, "Squaring a Minorities Triangle: Lucien Wolf, Jewish Nationalists and Polish Nationalists," in: Paul Latawski, ed., The Reconstruction of Poland, 1914-23, Basingstoke and London, UK, 1992 (ch. 2, pp. 13-40). [See also Mark Levene work, below]
At the end of WWI, Lucien Wolf was the leader of the Jewish community in Britain. Eugene Charlton Black (b. Boston, Mass, 1927) is an American historian of modern Britain; Paul Latawski is an American historian of Poland working and living in Great Britain.
Norman Davies, "Great Britain and the Polish Jews, 1914-1920," Journal of Contemporary History, 8 (1973), pp. 119-142.
Norman Davies b. 1940, is the pre-eminent British historian of Poland. For a detailed study of the topic, see:
Mark Levene, WAR, JEWS, AND THE NEW EUROPE. The Diplomacy of Lucien Wolf, 1914-1919, Oxford, 1992.
Mark Levene (b. London, 1953) is Lecturer in Modern Jewish History at Warwick University, UK.
A History of Polish Jewry during the Renewal of Poland, contains: Isaac Lewin, "The Political History of Polish Jewry, 1918-1919"; Nahum Michael Gelber, "The National Autonomy of Eastern-Galician Jewry in the West-Ukrainian Republic, 1918-1919," New York, 1990.
Isaac Lewin is Professor emeritus of Jewish History at the Bernard Revel Graduate School, Yeshiva University, New York. He has published works on the history of Jews in Poland. Nahum M. Gelber (died 1963), was a leading historian of 19th c. Polish Jewry.
Section 4. East Central European Peoples in World War I and the Peace Treaties
[NOTE: generally, Poland will be listed first as the largest country in Eastern Europe, also the one endowed with the most extensive English language historical literature].
THE PARIS PEACE CONFERENCE OF 1919. General.
Margaret Macmillan, Paris 1919. Six months that Changed the World, New York, 2002.
The author, the great-granddaughter of British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, upsets the old, negative stereotype view of the Peace Conference as led by short-sighted statesmen who produced a bad peace treaty, as well as the connected stereotype view that the Versailles Treaty produced Hitler. There are good surveys of East European questions and problems. This book, which won the Samuel Johnson Prize and the PEN Hessell Tilman and Duff Cooper Prizes, is a "must read" for all teachers of 20th c. European history.
Macmillan if Professor of History and Provost of Trinity College at the University of Toronto.
(A).The Rebirth of Poland, 1914-21:
(i) Much useful data on Polish territories before 1914 can be found in:
Handbooks Prepared under the Direction of the Historical Section of the Foreign Office: no. 46, Austrian Poland; no. 52, Prussian Poland; and no. 44, Russian Poland, Lithuania and White Russia, London, 1919-20.
These handbooks were prepared by historians for the British Delegation to the Paris Peace Conference, 1919. Also useful is
The Polish Encyclopedia prepared and published by the Committee for Polish Encyclopedic Publications, Fribourg, Switzerland, and the Polish National Committee of America, 3 vols., 1920-22; has hard-to-find maps and statistics.
(ii). Poles and Poland in World War I and in the Peace Settlements 1919.
Anna M. Cienciala and Titus Komarnicki, From Versailles to Locarno, Keys to Polish Foreign Policy, 1919-1925, Lawrence, KS, 1984.
Anna M. Cienciala, (b. Danzig/Gdansk, 1929) is a historian of European international relations, 1914-45, specializing in Polish foreign policy, who taught at the University of Ottawa, 1960-61, the University of Toronto, 1961-65 and the University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS., 1965-2002. Titus Komarnicki (1896-1967) was a Polish diplomat and historian. This book, based on a mss. written by Komarnicki, was revised by Cienciala and amplified with the addition of British and French diplomatic archival documents inaccessble at the time of his research; she also added two new chapters on Poland and the Locarno treaties (see Preface).
Patricia A. Gajda, Postscript to Victory. British Policy in the German-Polish Borderlands, 1919-1925, Washington, DC, 1982.
Based on British archives, this study tends to favor the British point of view. See also Cienciala, and Cienciala and Komarnicki works. Gajda (b. 1941) is of Polish descent; she teaches at the University of Texas, Tyler, TX, and specializes in Texas history.
Bela Kiraly and Nandor F. Dreisziger, East Central European Society in World War I, War and Society in East Central Europe, vol. XIX, New York, 1985, Part III, Home Front, Poland, and Part IV, Military Affairs, Poland.
Titus Komarnicki, Rebirth of the Polish Republic. A Study in the Diplomatic History of Europe, 1914-1920, London, 1957. (Part I, ch. 1-V).
On T. Komarnicki, see first title in this section. This is the most detailed diplomatic history of the subject, still useful, though partly outdated due to the publication of works based on British and French archival sources unavailable to the author, see Cienciala Komarnicki book above.
Paul Latawski, ed., The Reconstruction of Poland, 1914-23, Basingstoke and London, UK, 1992.
This collection of conference papers (London, Dec. 1988), covers a broad spectrum of topics: Roman Dmowski; the Jewish Question; Polish-Ukrainian relations; American policy toward Poland; Danzig and the Polish Corridor at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919" (Cienciala); Roman Dmowski at the Paris Peace Conference (Wandycz); the establishment of a National Government, 1918;The Economic Integration of Poland, 1918-23; Reconstruction of the Government and State Apparatus, and the Origins of the Polish Foreign Ministry.
Polish Women in the Fight for Independence, 1880-1921.
Robert M. Ponichtera, "Feminists, Nationalists, and Soldiers: Women in the Fight for Polish Independence," International History Review, vol. XIX (19), no. 1, Feb. 1997, pp. 16- 31.
R. M. Ponichtera, Yale University Ph. D., studied under Professor Piotr S. Wandycz. The first part of the article deals with the late 19th and early 20th century; pp. 22 ff. recounts Polish women's participation in the fight for independence, 1914-18, then the Polish-Ukrainian and Polish-Soviet Wars of 1918-21.
For the most detailed account of Polish questions at the Peace Conference, 1919. see:
Kay Lundgreen-Nielsen, The Polish Problem at the Paris Peace Conference. A Study of the Polices of the Great Powers and the Poles, 1918-1919, Odense, Denmark, 1979.
The author, a Danish historian of Poland, gives a detailed account of the establishment of Poland's western frontier with Germany, and a very critical assessment of Poland's eastern policy. (Compare with the chapters on Wilno and East Galicia in Cienciala-Komarnicki, From Versailles to Locarno). See also:
H. W. V. Temperley, ed., A HISTORY OF THE PEACE CONFERENCE OF PARIS, 6 vols., Oxford, London, 1920, reprint Oxford, 1969.
Written by British and American experts immediately after the Paris Peace Conference and the signing of the Versailles Treaty,this series has some very useful information on Poland at the Peace Conference (vol. VI, ch. II, pt. II, pp. 233-283); Germany's loss of territory to Poland (v. II, ch. IV, pt. II, pp. 207-215); The Teschen Question (vol. IV, ch. VI, pt. I, pp. 348-367); the Polish Minorities Treaty, 28 June, 1919 (vol. V, ch. II, C, pp. 132-143; the Letter from G. Clemenceau to I. Paderewski, 24 June 1919, and text of Minorities Treaty, App. IV, pp. 432-445).
French Policy on Poland in WWI and at the Peace Conference
Piotr S. Wandycz, France and her Eastern Allies 1919-1925. French-Czechoslovak- Polish Relations from the Paris Peace Conference to Locarno, Minneapolis, MN, 1962.
Wandycz (b. in Poland 1923), educated in Poland, France and UK, formerly professor at Indiana University, professor emeritus Yale University, is the pre-eminent American historian of modern Poland and specialist in interwar European diplomatic history.
U. S. Policy on Poland, WW I and Peace Conference.
M. B. Biskupski, "The Wilsonian View of Poland: Idealism and Geopolitical Traditionalism," in: John Micgiel, ed., Wilsonian Central Europe, NY, 1995, pp. 123-145.
Biskupski is a specialist on the U.S. and Poland, 1914-19; he hold the chair of Polish and Polish American History at the Central State University of Connecticut, New Britain, CT.
ohn Micgiel, who is of Polish descent, is a political scientist and the director of the European Studies Institute, Columbia University, New York.
Piortr S. Wandycz, The United States and Poland, Cambridge, MA, 1980, ch. 3, Wilson and the Rebirth of Poland, pp. 194-169.
(iii) Special studies on disputed areas of Poland in 1919-21.
(A). Poland and Germany: Danzig at the Paris Peace Conference, 1919, also in 1920-21
Anna M. Cienciala, "The Battle of Danzig and the Polish Corridor at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919," ch. 5, in: Paul Latawski, ed., THE RECONSTRUCTION OF POLAND, 1914-23, (Basingstoke, London, UK, 1992, pp. 71-94).
and same, with T. Komarnicki, FROM VERSAILLES TO LOCARNO, (Lawrence, KS, 1984), ch. 4, (pp. 91-104).
also same: "An Aspect of the German-Polish Problem in the Interwar Period: The Secret Anglo-French Agreement on Danzig and the Saar and its Consequences, 1919- 1926," Zeitschrift fur Ostforschung, Heft 3, Marburg, 1978 (pp. 434- 455);
Sir James Headlam-Morley, A Memoir of the Paris Peace Conference 1919, edited by Agnes Headlam-Morley, Russell Bryant and Anna M. Cienciala, London, 1972.
Headlam-Morley (1863-1929) was the author of the Versailles Treaty articles on the Free City of Danzig. Agnes, his daughter, was a British historian, was; R. Bryant is an American historian.
see also:
John Brown Mason, THE DANZIG DILEMMA. A Study in Peacemaking by Compromise, Stanford, CA, 1946.
The author (b. Berlin, 1904), a political scientist and historian, gives a good introductory survey to the settlement, based on sources published up to 1945; the book is useful for published documents and on how the Danzig settlement worked out in practice, but is many respects outdated.
Upper Silesia at the Paris Peace Conference:
Richard Blanke, "Upper Silesia, 1921; The Case for Subjective Nationality, " Canadian Review of Studies in Nationalism, 2, 2, spring 1975 (pp. 241-260)
by an American historian of German descent; sympathetic to German views. See his book on the German minority in Poland, The Orphans of Versailles, section dealing with Minorities in interwar Poland.
Cienciala and Komarnicki, FROM VERSAILLES TO LOCARNO, ch. 3 (pp. 59-90).
Joseph F. Harrington, Jr., "The League of Nations and the Upper Silesian Boundary Dispute, 1921-1922," Polish Review, vol. 23, no. 3, 1978 (pp. 86- 101);
by an American historian sympathetic to Poland.
same, "Third Polish Uprising in Upper Silesia, 1921: A Case Study in Anglo-French Relations," New Review of East European History, 14, 1974 (pp. 78-91);
same: "Upper Silesia and the Paris Peace Conference," Polish Review, vol. 19, no. 2, 1974 (pp. 25-45);
Peter Lesniewski, "Three Insurrections in Upper Silesia, 1919-21," in: Peter D. Stachura, ed., Poland between the Wars, 1918-1939, Basingstoke UK and New York, 1998.
Good account of British policy based on archives, but without showing interaction with France. Lesniewski is a British scholar of Polish descent.
Robert Machray, The Problem of Upper Silesia, London, 1945.
Robert Machray (1857-1946) was a British historian specialising in Poland. Written in support of Polish claims, this little book has some hard-to-find ethnic maps and statistics.
William J. Rose, The Drama of Upper Silesia: A Regional Study, Brattelboro, Vt., 1935 and London, 1936.
gives history before and after 1921, sympathetic to Poland. William J. Rose (1885-1968), a Canadian Christian Student Movement organizer caught by the war in Teschen Silesia, was involved in drawing up the local Polish-Czechoslovak agreement on Teschen of November 5, 1918, and then in representing the Polish case in Paris. He obtained a Ph.D. in Polish history at the Jagiellonian University, Krakow, and became a historian of Poland. In the 1930s and 1940s, he was the Director of the School of Slavonic Studies, University of London. See The Polish Memoirs of William J. Rose, edited by Daniel Stone, Toronto, 1976 (review by Cienciala, Canadian Slavonic Papers, vol. XVIII, no. 2, 1976, pp. 339-40).
Sarah S. Wambaugh, Plebiscites since World War I, 2 vols, Washington, 1933.
Wambaugh (b. 1882) was an American scholar. This is a very useful account based on sources available at the time, with maps, and statistical tables.
(B) Poland and Czechoslovakia, 1919-20:
For a balanced treatment of the Teschen (Tesin, Cieszyn) Dispute between Poland and Czechoslovakia in 1918-20, see:
Piotr S. Wandycz, France and her Western Allies, 1914-1925., Minneapolis, MN, 1962, ch. 3 (pp. 104-134); also:
Zygmunt J. Gasiorowski, "Polish-Czechoslovak Relations, 1918-1922," The Slavonic and East European Review, v. 38, no. 84, London, 1956, pp. 172-193.
Z. J Gasiorowski (b. Poland, 1919) taught at the University of Georgia, Athens, GA.
B. Kozusznik, The Problem of Cieszyn Silesia. Facts and Documents, London, 1943.
Dr. Boguslaw Kozusznik ( 1901-1998), was a Polish native of Teschen (Tesin, Cieszyn) Silesia. and at this time a member of the Polish National Council (surrogate Parliament), attached to the Polish government-in-exile. He presents arguments in support of Poland's claim to western Teschen (Zaolzie). This is a good presentation of the Polish claim to the western Teschen area (Polish: Zaolzie), with useful maps and statistics:
W. J. Rose, "Czechs and Poles as Neighbors," Journal of Central European Affairs vol. 11, 1951, no. 2, pp. 153-171.
Daniel Stone, ed., THE POLISH MEMOIRS OF WILLIAM JOHN ROSE, Toronto, 1975 (ch.3).
Daniel Z. Stone (b. 1942) is a historian of modern Poland, who teaches at the University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. On Rose, see biogr. note in section A above.
(C) Poles and Lithuanians: the dispute over Vilna/Wilno/Vilnius 1919-23.
Cienciala and Komarnicki, From Versailles to Locarno, ch. 5. See also:
M. K. Dziewanowski, JOSEPH PILSUDSKI A European Federalist, 1918-1922, Stanford, CA, 1969, ch. V-VIII (pp. 79-178) sympathetic to Poland
Marian Kamil Dziewanowski, (b. Ukraine, 1913), served in the Polish army in World War II, obtained a Ph. D. in history at Harvard, is Professor Emeritus University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. He is the author of several books, including a history of World War II.
Alfred Erich Senn, THE GREAT POWERS, LITHUANIA, AND THE VILNA QUESTION, 1920-1928, Leiden, 1966
A. E. Senn (b. Madison, WI, 1932) is an American historian, author of several books sympathetic to Lithuania.
Timothy Snyder, The Reconstruction of Nations (2003), ch. 4. The First World War and the Wilno Question (1914-1939), pp. 52-72,
a balanced account of the Lithuanian-Polish dispute and Polish rule 1920-39.
(D) The Polish-Soviet War, 1919-1920
(i) Diplomatic history of the Polish-Soviet War of 1919-20
Piotr S. Wandycz, Soviet-Polish Relations, 1917-1921, Cambridge, Mass., 1969;
By the pre-eminent historian of Poland in U. S., author of several books, prof. emeritus Yale University, this is the best English language study to date on the subject.
(ii) Military history of the Polish-Soviet War, 1919-20, see:
Norman Davies, White Eagle Red Star. The Polish-Soviet War, 1919-1920, London, New York, 1972, and reprints:
by the pre-eminent British historian of Poland, (b. 1940), London School of Slavonic Studies, University of London. This revised Ph. D dissertation, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, is written in a lively style, has illustrations and excellent documentation, but the book should be updated in light of post-1989 Polish studies.
Thomas C. Fiddick, Russia's Retreat from Poland, 1920. From Permanent Revolution to Peaceful Coexistence, New York, 1990.
Fiddick, an American historian of Russia teaching at the University of Evansville, IN., portrays the Soviet leadership as not wishing to defeat the Poles and Tukhachevsky as going against their wishes in forging ahead (see Piotr S. Wandycz critique, The Russian Review, v. 51, no. 1, Jan. 1992, pp. 130- 131)
Adam Zamoyski, The Battle for the Marchlands, East Eur. Monographs. LXXXVIII, New York, 1981.
A. Zamoyski, (b. New York, 1949), was educated in UK. He is the author of several books dealing with Polish history and lives in London. This is a good, lively account of the Polish-Soviet War; compare with N. Davies.
Did French General Maxime Weygand and the Western Powers "save" Poland and Europe from the Bolsheviks in summer 1920?
F. Russell Bryant, "Lord D'Abernon, the Anglo-French Mission, and the Battle of Warsaw, 1920," Jarhbucher fur Geschichte Osteuropas, v. 38, 1990, h. 4, pp. 526-547.
The author, an American historian, claims that Pilsudski's counter-offensive could not have succeeded without general Weygand's input, and that the mission of which he was a member, was the result of British Premier Lloyd George's foresight.
For a very different view, see:
Norman Davies, "Sir Maurice Hankey and the Inter-Allied Mission to Poland, July- August 1920," The Historical Journal, London, 1972, v. XV, no. 3, pp. 553- 561
The author, the pre-eminent British historian of Poland, shows that the myth of the Western Powers saving Poland from the Bolsheviks in 1920 originated with Sir Maurice Hankey.
Zdzislaw Musialik, General Weygand and the Battle of the Vistula - 1920, (trans. from Polish) edited by Antoni Jzef Bohdanowicz, Jzef Pilsudski Institute of Research, London, 1987.
The work is based on Polish and French military archives, also on U. S. documentary sources, but is marred by typographical errors and omissions in the footnotes. Musialik, a historian, is a Catholic priest living in Poland.
Piotr S. Wandycz, "General Weygand and the Battle of Warsaw of 1920," Journal of Central European Affairs, vol. XIX, no. 4, Jan. 1960, pp. [357] 365.
This seminal study in English, demonstrates that Weygand should not be credited with the Polish victory over the Red Army.
M. B. Biskupski, "Paderewski, Polish Politics, and the Battle of Warsaw, 1920," Slavic Review, 1987, vol. 46, no. 3-4, pp. 503- 512.
Biskupski, a Polish-American historian, is a specialist on interwar Poland and U. S. policy toward Poland; he taught for many years at St. John Fischer College, Rochester, N. Y. and nowholds the chair of Polish and Polish American history at the Central State University of Connecticut, New Britain, Ct. since fall 2003.
For the accounts of the two key military leaders in the Polish-Soviet War, see:
Jozef Pilsudski, Year 1920 and its Climax: Battle of Warsaw during the Polish-Soviet War, 1919-1920, with the Addition of Soviet Marshal Tukhachevski's March beyond the Vistula, New York (Jozef Pilsudski Institute of America), 1972.
Tukhachevsky's account should be read first; Pilsudski's essay was his answer to it.
For Pilsudski's federal projects regarding Belorussia, Ukraine, Lithuania see:
K. M. Dziewanowski, Joseph Pilsudski. A European Federalist, 1918-1922, Stanford (Hoover) CA, 1969.
The author stresses Pilsudski's long range plans before and during the war.
Piotr S. Wandycz, "Polish Federalism 1919-1920 and its Historical Antecedents," East European Quarterly, Boulder, CO., 1970, vol. IV, no. 1, pp. 25-39.
U. S. Policy toward Russia and the Polish-Soviet War
Piotr W. Wandycz, The United States and Poland, Cambridge, Mass., 1980, ch. 3, section: The Polish-Soviet War, pp. 143-156.
Boguslaw W. Winid, "After the Colby Note: The Wilson Administration and the Polish-Bolshevik War," The Presidential Studies Quarterly, v. 26, no. 4, Fall 1996, pp. 1165-1169.
The author, a Polish diplomat and historian, comments on David McFadden's article "After the Colby Note: The Wilson Administration and the Bolsheviks, 1920-1921," published in the same journal in fall 1995. This refers to American Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby's note to Italian Ambassador Romano Avezzana that the U. S. could not recognize the Bolshevik regime or sign treaties with it, also that all means should be used to preserve Poland's independence and integrity.
On American pilots' participation in the Polish-Soviet War, see:
"American Pilots in Polish Uniform," in: Henryk Wilecki, Silver Eagle Golden Eagle. Polish-American Military Traditions since 1776, Warsaw, 1999, pp. 92- 95.
There is no information on the author, who seems to be a military historian. This is an illustrated, popular history of the subject with some useful information.
Kenneth M. Murray, WINGS OVER POLAND: The Story of the 7th Kosciuszko Squadron of the Polish Air Service, 1919, 1920, 1921, New York, 1932.
On the American pilots, formerly of the Lafayette Squadron, France, who fought for Poland.
(E) Poles and Ukrainians - the struggle for East Galicia, 1918-22:
Cienciala and Komarnicki, FROM VERSAILLES TO LOCARNO, ch. 6-8
M. K. Dziewanowski, JOSEPH PILSUDSKI. A European Federalist, ch. XII-XV (pp. 217-288).
Michael Palij, The Ukranian-Polish Defensive Alliance, 1919-1921. An Aspect of the Ukrainian Revolution, Edmonton, Toronto, 1995.
The author, a Ukrainian born and raised in Poland, who studied in Germany and is a Slavic bibliographer emeritus at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS., focuses on the Ukrainian side of the story. He views Jozef Pilsudski's Ukrainian policy as purely instrumental and charges him with betraying the cause of a free Ukraine. The book includes treaty texts and an extensive bibliography. (See: Anna M. Cienciala, American Historical Review, vol. 102, no. 2, April 1997, pp. 484-485).
For a Ukrainian nationalist view of the Polish-Ukrainian struggle for East Galicia, see:
Michael Yaremko, GALICIA-HALYCHYNA (A Part of Ukraine). From Separation to Unity), Toronto, New York, 1967.
For a moderate Ukrainian view, see:
Ivan L. Rudnytsky, Essays in Modern Ukrainian History, Edmonton, 1987, (pp. 375-417).
(See also Polish-Ukrainian relations in section 3 A, Poland).
(iv) On U. S. policy and aid to Poland, 1919-22, see excellent survey in:
Piotr S. Wandycz, The United States and Poland, Cambridge, Mass., 1980, ch. 3, Wilson and the Rebirth of Poland, also annotated bibliography for ch. 3, in Suggested Reading. See also:
A. B. Barber, Report on American Technical Advisers' Mission to Poland, 1919-1922, New York, 1922.
This is an interesting account by a member of the Mission; it deals mainly with railways, but also with the early days of the Free City of Danzig, where the author spent some of his time.
Alfred A. Cornebise, Typhus and Doughboys: The American Polish Typhus Relief Expedition, 1919-1921, Newark, 1982
This expedition saved thousands of lives. A. F. Cornebise (b. 1929, Brownfield, TX), has published books on the Weimar Republic and U. S. military journalism. He taught at the University of Northwestern Colorado, where he was chairman of the History Dept., 1984-86.
Harold H. Fischer, America and the New Poland, New York, 1928.
by an American YMCA officer sympathetic to Poland.
William R. Grove, War's Aftermath. Polish Relief in 1919, New York, 1940
Diary and reports of author and associates, members of theAmerican Relief Administration; pictures, portraits, maps. W. R. Grove was awarded the Medal of Honor.
George J. Lerski, comp., Herbert Hoover and Poland: A Documentary History of a Friendship, Stanford, CA, 1977
based on Hoover papers in Hoover Archives, Stanford, CA. Herbert Hoover was treated as a hero in Poland and there is a statue of him in Warsaw. George J. (Jerzy) Lerski (1917-1992), was an active member of the Polish Democratic Party (SD), fought the Germans in September 1939, joined the Polish army in France, was parachuted into Poland 1942 and traveled as a courier to London, 1943, then worked for the Polish government there. He obtained his Ph. D. in history at Georgetown University, 1953, and taught at several U. S. universities before joining the faculty at the University of San Francisco, 1966. He published books and articles, also a bibliography on Polish-Jewish relations. He died when revising the Historical Dictionary of Poland, 966-1945, completed by Piotr Wrobel and Richard J. Kozicki, (Greenwood Press, Westport, CT, and London, 1996; Lerski's biographical sketch, ibid., pp. 298-299).
B. The Birth of Czechoslovakia, 1914-1918
Dagmar Perman, The Shaping of the CzechoSlovak State. Diplomatic History of the Boundaries of Czecho-slovakia, 1914-1920, Leiden, 1962.
sympathetic to Czechoslovakia.
Josef Kalvoda, The Genesis of Czecho-slovakia, East European Monographs, 209, New York, 1986;
This is a"revisionist" work. The author, a Czech historian, is, critical of over-emphasis on the role of T. G. Masaryk; he details the work of other Czech politicians, mainly in the home country.
Louis H. Rees, The Czechs during World War I: The Path to Independence, East Eur. Monographs, 1992.
deals with domestic situation in last two years of war. (Reviewed by Jiri Koralka, Austrian History Yearbook, vol. XXVI, 1995, pp. 276-277).
Betty Miller Unterberger, The United States, Revolutionary Russia and the Rise of Czechoslovakia, Chapel Hill, 1989.
B. M. Unterberger (b. Glasgow, Scotland), studied in U. S. and teaches at Texas A and M University. This is an excellent study with a most useful bibliography on the Czechoslovak question in 1914-21.
For a contemporary view of the Czechoslovak struggle for independence, 1914-18, by a participant, see:
Vladimir Nosek, Independent Bohemia. An Account of the Czecho-Slovak Struggle for Liberty, London, Toronto, New York, 1918
The author was Secretary at the Czechoslovak Legation, London at the time.
See also:
R. W. Seton-Watson, "The Formation of the Czechoslovak State," in: H. W. V. Temperley, A History of the Peace Conference of Paris, Oxford, 1920, 1968, vol. VI, Part III (pp. 286-278).
R. W. Seton-Watson was the pre-eminent British historian of East Central and South-Eastern European peoples at this time. This is an account written just after the events it describes.
For a reassessment of T. G. Masaryk's WW I ideas on future Europe, see:
Francesco Leoncini, "T. G. Masaryk's 'Nova Evropa:' A Reinterpretation, " in: Historical Reflections on Central Europe. Selected Papers from the Fifth World Congress of Central and East European Studies, edited by Stanislav J. Kirschbaum, Warsaw, 1995, pp. 65-73.
F. Leoncini is professor of Slavic History at the Universita Ca'Foscari di Venezia; among his publications is an edited Italian translation of T. G. Masaryk's work: The New Europe. A Slavic Point of View.
[NOTE: For the memoirs of Masaryk and Benes, see sec. 3, Czechoslovakia, below].
(C) Hungary, War, the Hungarian Revolutions, 1918-19, and the Treaty of Trianon, 1920
(i) Surveys and collective works on period
Peter F. Sugar, Hanak and Frank, eds., A History of Hungary, Bloomington, IN, 1990, ch. XV and XVI (pp. 267-318);
Bela K. Kiraly and Nandor Dreisziger, eds., East Central European Society in World War I. War and Society in East Central Europe, New York, 1985;
Istvan I. Mocsy, The Effects of World War I, the Uprooted: Hungarian Refugees and their Impact on Hungarian Domestic Politics, 1918-1921, East Eur. Monograph no. 147, New York, 1983.
(ii) On the Hungarian Revolutions of 1918-19 and the Hungarian Soviet Republic see:
Tibor Hajdu, The Hungarian Soviet Republic, Budapest, 1979;
useful, though written and published under some political restrictions.
Alfred D. Low, The Soviet Hungarian Republic and the Paris Peace Conference, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, new series, vol. 53, part 10, Philadelphia, 1963;
A. D. Low (b, Vienna 1913), studied in Vienna and U. S. taught at various U. S. universities. He has published books on modern European history.
Peter Pastor, ed., Revolution and Intervention in Hungary and its Neighbor States, 1918-1919, East Eur. Mon. 240, New York, 1988.
Pastor is an American historian of Hungarian descent, then teaching at Montclair State University, Upper Montclair, N. J.
Gyorgi Peteri, "Effects of World War I: War Communism in Hungary, 1919," in War and Society in East Central Europe, vol. XVI, New York, 1984.
Gyrogy G. Peteri was then a Professor at The Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Ranheim, Norway.
Rudolf L. Tokes, Bela Kun and the Hungarian Soviet Republic: the Origins and Role of the Communist Party of Hungary in he Revolutions of 1918-1919, New York, 1967.
R. Tokes, (b. Budapest, 1935) is a Political Scientist, author of several books, teaching at the University of Connecticut; this is the standard American work on the topic.
(iii) On the Treaty of Trianon, 1920, see:
Bela Kiraly and Laszlo Veszpremy, Trianon and East Central Europe, East Eur. Monographs, no. 418, New York, 1995.
by Hungarian-American historians; sympathetic to Hungary.
Maria Ormos, From Padua to the Trianon, 1918-1920, East Eur. Mon. no. 298, New York, 1991;
translation of a detailed history by a Hungarian-American historian.
for a contemporary British view, see:
H. W. V. Temperley, The New Hungary, in: same, ed., A HISTORY OF THE PEACE CONFERENCE OF PARIS, Oxford, 1921, 1969, vol. IV, ch. IX, pt. II, (pp. 485-497), and: The Hungarian Treaty, ibid., ch. VII, C (pp. 415-428).
(D) The Balkans in World War I.
Barbara Jelavich, HISTORY OF THE BALKANS. Twentieth Century, vol. 2 Cambridge, UK, 1993 (reprint of 1983 edition), ch. 4 (pp. 106-133).
B. Jelavich (1923 1994?), was the leading American historian of the Modern Balkans and Balkan-Russian relations. She often published jointly with her husband, Charles Jelavich, also an American historian of the Balkans.
2 For Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro in World War I, see chapters on these countries in:
Bela F. Kiraly and Nandor F. Dreisziger, eds., EAST CENTRAL EUROPEAN SOCIETY IN WORLD WAR I. War and Society in East Central Europe, vol. XIX, New York, 1985.
For contemporary British experts' accounts and views, see:
H. W. V. Temperley, ch. VII, V, pt. II, Albania, in, same, ed., A HISTORY OF THE PEACE CONFERENCE OF PARIS, vol. IV, Oxford, 1921, 1969, (pp. 338-347); W. J. M. Childs, The New Bulgaria, pp. 444-461, ibid., also: The Bulgarian Treaty, pp. 411-415, ibid., ; R. G. D. Laffan, ch. IV The Liberation of the New Nationalities, on Yugoslavia, pp. 172-212, ibid; Rumania, pp. 213-256, ibid
(iii) For Balkan diplomatic history 1919-20, see:
(A) Bulgaria, Treaty of Neuilly.
Georgi P. Genov, Bulgaria and the Treaty of Neuilly, Sofia, Danov, 1935;
An older, still useful study by a Bulgarian historian.
Richard Frucht, Dunarea Noastra; Romania, the Great Powers, and the Danube Question, 1914-1921, Boulder, CO, East European Quarterly, 1982;
Frucht is an American historian specializing in the Balkans; he teaches at Northwest Missouri State University, Maryville, MO. He is the editor of: Encyclopedia of Eastern Europe, Garland, New York, 2000.
Sherman D. Spector, Rumania at the Paris Conference: A Study of the Diplomacy of Ioan I. C. Bratianu, New York, 1962;
Spector is an American historian, specialist in Romanian and Russian history; he was Professor Emeritus of Russell Sage College and lieved in Orange County, CT. Ioan I. C. Bratianu (1864-1927) was the most prominent Romanian statesman in the period 1900-1927, several times Prime Minister, including the period in question (except 1920-21).
For R. W. Seton-Watson's activities and correspondence with Romanian politicians, 1906-20 see:
Cornelia Bodea and Hugh Seton-Watson, eds., R. W. SETON-WATSON AND THE ROMANIANS, 1906-1920, 2 vols, Bucharest, 1988.
R. W. Seton-Watson was the pre-eminent British historian of East Central and S. E. Europe in the early 20th century. C. Bodea is a prominent Romanian historian; the late Hugh Seton-Watson, a British historian of Russia, was the son of R. W. Seton-Watson.
Dmitrije Djordjevic and Stephen Fischer-Galati, eds., The Creation of Yugoslavia, 1914-1918, Santa Barbara, 1980;
Djodrjevic is an American historian of Yugoslav origin teaching at the University of California, Santa Barbara; Fischer-Galati is an American historian of Romanian origin, Professor Emeritus the University of Colorado at Boulder; he edits the East European Quarterly.
Ivo J. Lederer, Yugoslavia at the Paris Conference: A Study in Frontier- Making, New Haven, CT, 1963.
Lederer (b. Zagreb, Croatia, 1929) studied in U. S. and is an American historian specializing in E. Europe.
For R. W. Seton-Watson and the Yugoslavs, 1906-41, see:
Hugh Seton-Watson et al, eds., R. W. SETON-WATSON AND THE YUGOSLAVS. Correspondence 1906-1941, 2 vols., London-Zagreb, 1976.
On R. W. Seton-Watson, see Part I, sections on Hungary 1867-1914 and late 19th c. Balkans.
Section 5. EAST CENTRAL EUROPE BETWEEN THE WARS, 1918-39.
For good, short, surveys, see:
R. J. Crampton, EASTERN EUROPE IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, London, New York, 1996, has an introductory survey, short chapters by country, and a chapter on ideological currents
(On Crampton, see pt. I., Historical Atlases, pt. II, General Surveys).
Robin Okey, Eastern Europe 1740-1985, Feudalism to Communism, 2nd ed. Minneapolis, MN, 1986, ch. 7, (pp. 157-180).
R. Okey is a British historian; he treats E. Europe within the general European context.
Piotr W. Wandycz, The Price of Freedom. A History of East Central Europe from the Middle Ages to the Present, N. Y., 1992, pb. 1993.
ch. 7, (pp. 201-235) is a brief, cogent survey of Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland in the interwar period by an eminent American historian of Polish origin, Professor emeritus Yale University.
C. A. Macartney and A. W. Palmer, Independent Eastern Europe. A History, London, New York, 1962
C. A. Macartney was the pre-eminent British historian of Hungary (for biographical information, see Part I, Habsburg Empire 1815-1918); A. W. Palmer is a British historian who has written on 19-20th century European history. This is a mostly diplomatic history, sympathetic to Hungary. See also
Joseph Rothschild, East Central Europe Between the Two World Wars, Seattle, Wash., 1974, and reprint 1990, vol. IX of the History of Eastern Europe, edited by Peter F. Sugar and Donald F. Treadgold of the University of Washington, Seattle, Wash. See also 2nd edition, New York, Oxford University Press, 1993, and updated version edited by Nancy M. Wingfield, New York, 2000.
This work by an American political scientist, Professor Emeritus of Columbia University, New York, (d. 1999) gives excellent, detailed, chapters on each country but does not deal with foreign policy.
[NOTE: Until the publication of the Rotschild book, the best known survey was. by the British historian, Hugh Seton-Watson (1916-1984), Eastern Europe Between the Wars, 1918-1941, London, 1945, and reprints. As the author admits in the preface to the 3rd edition (1962), this book reflects the views of his generation, that is, their admiration of the Soviet Union both then and during World War II. He states that if he were to write the book again, he would acknowledge that much of what he saw as national shortcomings in East European countries stemmed from the heritage of the past].
Antony Polonsky, The Little Dictators. The History of Eastern Europe since 1918, London, 1975.
balanced survey by a South African-born historian of Polish-Jewish descent, a specialist on Polish and 20th c. Polish-Jewish history, and editor of a series of very valuable, scholarly annual volumes on the history of Jews in Poland, Polin. Polonsky is the Albert Abrahamson Professor of Holocaust Studies at Brandeis University and the U.S. Holocaust Museum, Wash. D.C..
Peter F. Sugar, ed., Native Fascism in the Successor States, 1918-1945, Santa Barbara, 1971.
Peter Sugar, b. in Hungary (d. 1999) taught for many years at. Washington University, Seattle; he was an outstanding American historian of E. Europe, especially the Balkans.
S. A. Mansbach, Modern Art in Eastern Europe: From the Baltic to the Balkans, 1890-1939, Cambridge, UK, 1999.
A useful study of modernism in the art of E. European countries. (see Alla Rosenfield's review, Slavic Review, vol. 59, no. 3, Fall 2000, pp. 647- 648).
d. Economies of interwar E. Europe.
Gabor Batonyi, Britain and East Central Europe, 1918-1933, Oxford, 1999.
Batonyi, a historian of Hungarian descent who teaches at the University of Bradford, UK, details British interest in reconstructing the economic unity of the Danube Basin, centering on Vienna, then Budapest. There is much interesting economic information in the book, but the author exaggerates British commitment to this project. (See Cienciala, Slavic Review, vol. 59, no. 3, Fall 2000, pp. 644-645).
Nicolas Spulber, The State and Economic Development in Eastern Europe, New York, 1966, (pp. 12-42).
A good, short, survey of state-sponsored industrial development to 1945 by an American Economist. Spulber, (b. Romania, 1915, d. US, 2003) was the author of numerous books on East European Economics and Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.
M. C. Kaser and E. A Radice, eds., The Economic History of Eastern Europe 1919- 1975, vols. I, II, Oxford, 1985-86.
Kaser was then Professorial Fellow of St. Anthony's College, Oxford; Radice was a fellow of the same college, after a distinguished career in British government service. This is an informative and competent survey.
Wilbert E. Moore, ed., Economic Demography of Eastern and Southern Europe, League of Nations, Geneva, 1945, reprint 1972
still valuable for rare data.
Sidney Pollard, Colin Holmes, eds., Documents of European Economic History. The End of the Old Europe 1915-1939, New York, 1972.
At the time of publication, Pollard was Professor of Economic History, University of Sheffield, UK, while Holmes was Lecturer in Economic History there. These documents focus on France, Germany, German Reparations, and Soviet Russia, but also include a few items on the effects of the war on Austria-Hungary, and the postwar problems of these countries.
Wojciech Roszkowski, Land Reforms in East Central Europe after World War One, Warsaw, 1995. A good sketch of the background before 1914, including Baltic States, then a study of postwar land reforms, their implementation, and effects. In 2, 000-2003, the author held the Kosciuszko Chair of Polish Studies at the Miller Center for Public Affairs, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA., then returned to Poland.
Alice Teichova and P. L. Cottrell, eds., International Business and Central Europe 1918-1939, Leicester and New York, 1983.
Teichova is a Czech historian; Cottrell is a British historian. The book has much valuable material on foreign, especially German investments in the region.
Section 6. INTERWAR EAST CENTRAL EUROPE BY COUNTRY.
(i). General see relevant chapters in
Joseph Korbel, Twentieth Century Czechoslovakia. The Meanings of Its History, New York, 1977 (ch. one through seven).
very readable, condemns Benes policy of accepting the Munich Agreement in late September 1938. Korbel was a Czechoslovak diplomat in the interwar, war and immediate postwar period; he emigrated to the U. S. and taught political science at the University of Colorado. He was the father of Madeleine Albright.
Victor S. Mamatey and Radomir Luza, eds., A History of the Czechoslovak Republic 1918-1948, Princeton, N. J., 1977
excellent contributors, still a very useful volume. (For Mamatey's biographical information, see section on World War I). Luza, the son a Czech general killed during the war, fought in the Czech resistance; see his book: The Hitler Kiss. A Memoir of the Czech Resistance, Baton Rouge, La., 2002.
Vera Olivova, The Doomed Democracy: Czechoslovakia in a Disrupted Europe, 1918-38, Montreal, 1972.
written by a Czech scholar; good illustrations.
H. Gordon Skilling, ed., Czechoslovakia, 1918-88. Seventy Years from Independence, New York, 1991.
Skilling ( 1912-2002) was a Canadian political scientist, Professor Emeritus University of Toronto, specialist on 20th century Czechoslovakia.
[On the Czechoslovak Crisis, 1938, see under B. Appeasement and Eastern Europe, below]
On Czechoslovakia after Munich, see:
Theodore Prohanka, The Second Republic: The Disintegration of post-Munich Czechoslovakia, October 1938-March 1939, East European Monographs no. 90, Boulder CO, and New York, 1981.
(ii). For useful chapters on culture, education, government, history, nationalities, politics, religions in interwar Czechoslovakia written by contemporary specialists, see:
Robert J. Kerner, ed., Czechoslovakia. Twenty Years of Independence, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1940.
R. J. Kerner (1887-1956) was an American scholar of Central Europe.
For a contemporary Czech presentation on education and culture, see:
Dr. R. Stransky, The Educational and Cultural System of the Czechoslovak Republic, Prague n. d. (probably 1935-37).
(iii). For a good, short study of the Czechoslovak interwar government and political parties, see:
Edward Taborsky, Czechoslovak Democracy at Work, London, 1945.
Taborsky was a Private Secretary to President Edvard Benes, 1940-45. (See his memoirs under Czechoslovakia in World War II, below).
(iv). OnCommunism in interwar Czechoslovakia, see:
Bernard Wheaton, Radical Socialism in Czechoslovakia: Bohumir Smeral, the Czech Road to Socialism, and the Origins of the Czechoslovak Communist Party, East Eur. Mon. 213, New York, 1986.
Bohumir Smeral (1880-1941) was the leader of the Czech Social Democratic Party and one of the founders of the Czech Communist Party.
Paul E. Zinner, Communist Strategy and Tactics in Czechoslovakia, 1918- 1948, Westport, CT, 1963, reprint, Westport, CT, 1975.
P. Zinner (b. Kosice, Czechoslovakia, 1922) was educated in U. S., served in U. S. army, has published on communism in Central Europe, USSR and world. He taught at the University of California, Davis, CA.
(v) On Fascism in interwar Czechoslovakia,
Jan Havranek and Joseph F. Zacek chapters in: Peter F. Sugar, ed., Native Fascism in the Successor States, (1971), pp. 47-62.
Havranek (d. 2003) was a Czech scholar; Zacek is an American historian of Czechoslovakia who taught at SUNY, Albany.
(vi). On the Czechoslovak interwar economy, see:
Alice Teichova, The Czechoslovak Economy, 1918-1980, London, 1988.
by a Czech economic historian.
same: An Economic Background to Munich: International Business and Czecho slovakia, 1918-1938, Cambridge, UK, 1974. The author was criticized for overemphasizing the economic causes of Munich.
(vii) On Czech historiography, see:
Andrew Rossos, "Czech Historiography, Part 1," CANADIAN SLAVONIC PAPERS, vol. 24, no. 3, 1983 (pp. 245-260) and Part 2, same, vol. 24, no. 4, 1982 (pp. 359-85).
Rossos teaches at the University of Toronto. (see also Part I, Historiography).
There are several works by and on T. G. Masaryk (1850-1937), the father of the Czechoslovak state, and President 1918-35:
(A)Works by T. G. Masaryk and conversations with him
Tomas G. Masaryk, The Making of a State: Memories and Observations, 1914- 1918, London, New York, 1927, reprint New York, 1969;
same, The Meaning of Czech History, Chapel Hill, NC, 1974. -lectures.
Draga B. Shillinglaw, ed., The Lectures of Professor T. G. Masaryk at the University of Chicago, Summer 1902, Lewisburg, Pa., and London, 1978.
Karel Capek, Talks with T. G. Masaryk, trans. Dora Round, London, 1935.
Karel Capek (1890-1938), was a famous Czech novelist, playwright and journalist, author ofThe Good Soldier Schweik.
Same, Masaryk on Thought and Life. [conversations with Karel Capek], London, 1938, New York, 1971.
Same, Talks with T. G. Masaryk, Michael Henry Heim, ed. and transl., North Haven, CT, 1995
(B) Works about T. G. Masaryk.
Milic Capek and Karel Hruby, eds., T. G. Masaryk in Perspective: Comments and Criticism, Flushing, N. Y., 1981.
Hanus J. Hajek, T. G. Masaryk Revisited. A Critical Assessment, East Eur. Monographs, no. 139, New York, 1983.
Peter Hanak et al, eds., Thomas G. Masaryk, 3 vols, New York, 1985.
Eva Schmidt-Hartmann, Thomas G. Masaryk's Realism: Origins of a Czech Political Concept, Munich, 1984 (on his philosophy);
H. Gordon Skilling, T. G. MASARYK, 1882-1914, University Park, Pa., 1993.
excellent study of TGM before the outbreak of the First World War by a Canadian specialist on Czech politics and history.
Roman Szporluk, The Political Thought of Thomas G. Masaryk, East European Monographs no. 85, Boulder Co. and New York, 1981.
Szporluk is a specialist in modern Polish, Ukrainian and Czech history; he teaches at Harvard University.
Zbynek A. Zeman, The Masaryks: The Making of Czechoslovakia, London, New York, 1976 and later reprint
Zeman is a Czech historian living in UK, Professor Emeritus Oxford University. This is a good, popular account of T. G. M. and his son Jan.
(ix) On Edvard Benes (1884-1948), who was Masaryk's right hand in World War I, Foreign Minister in 1918-35, President 1935-38, then head of the government-in-exile, London, 1940-45 and President again, 1945-48, see:
Edvard Benes, My War Memoirs, London, New York, 1928, and reprint, Westport CT, 1971; also:
same, Memoirs of Dr. Edvard Benes: From Munich to New War and New Victory, London, New York, 1954
the second memoirs were written so as not to offend the USSR.
Edvard Taborsky, President Edward Benes Between East and West, 1938- 1948, Stanford, CA, 1981
insightful memoirs by one of his private secretaries.
Jan Opocensky, ed., EDWARD BENES. Essays and Reflections presented on the occasion of his Sixtieth Birthday, London, 1945
by a number of his, mostly English, admirers.
Zbynek Zeman with Antonin Klimek, The Life of Edvard Benes, 1884-1948. Czechoslovakia in Peace and War, Oxford, 1997.
For Zeman, see book on the Masaryks, above. A. Klimek is Senior Research Fellow, Institute of History of the Czech Army, Prague. The book portrays Benes as a cold person, friendless except for his wife Hanna; as driven by the ambition to become President, which he achieved; also as totally confident that he was master of the art of politics. There is no bibliography, but sources are cited in footnotes, there is a note on sources and the abbreviations list the archives used. There are 7 illustrations.
(x) Masaryk and Benes's foreign policy, 1918-38,
Piotr S. Wandycz, "The Foreign Policy of Edvard Benes, 1918-1938, " in Mamatey and Luza, A HISTORY OF THE CZECHOSLOVAK REPUBLIC, pp. 216-238.
balanced account by the pre-eminent American historian of French-Polish-Czechoslovak relations.
(i) Czechoslovak German relations, 1919-33
F. Gregory Campbell, CONFRONTATION IN CENTRAL EUROPE. Weimar, Germany and Czechoslovakia, Chicago, 1975.
An excellent study by an American scholar. See also
(ii) Czechoslovak-French-Polish Relations, 1918-38.
Wandycz, France and her Eastern Allies, 1919-1925, Minneapolis, 1962.
although written before the opening of the French archives, this work is still a most valuable study. The book was awarded the AHA Henry Beer Prize.
Wandycz, THE TWILIGHT OF FRENCH EASTERN ALLIANCES 1926-1936. French- Czechoslovak-Polish Relations from Locarno to the remilitarization of the Rhineland, Cambridge, Mass, 1988.
most detailed and reliable study. This book was also awarded the AHA Henry Beer Prize.
See also:
Zygmunt J. Gasiorowski, "Polish-Czechoslovak Relations, 1922-1926," The Slavonic and East European Review, v. 35, no. 85, London, 1957, pp. 473-504.
By a Polish historian working in the U. S. Professor emeritus of the University of Georgia, Athens, GA.
[NOTE: On Munich, see section 5 on APPEASEMENT below]
(xi) On the constituent nationalities and ethnic minorities of interwar Czechoslovakia, see:
Carol Skalnik Leff, National Conflict in Czechoslovakia. The Making and Remaking of a State, 1918-1987, Princeton, N. J., 1988.
Skalnik Leff, an American political scientist, was then teaching at the University of Illinois, Urbana, IL; ch. 2 is a good overview of the nationalities problem in interwar Czechoslovakia.
(a) Slovaks in interwar Czechoslovakia.
James R. Felak, At the Price of the Republic: Hlinka's Slovak People's Party, 1929-1938, Pittsburgh, PA., 1994.
excellent study; Felak teaches at the University of Washington, Seattle.
Yashayahu A. Jelinek, The Lust for Power: Nationalism, Slovakia and the Communists, 1918-1948, East European Monographs, no. 130, New York, 1983;
Jelinek obtained his Ph. D. at Indiana University, 1966. He is an Israeli researcher living in Beer-Sheva, Israel.
same, The Parish Republic: Hlinka's Slovak People's Party, East European Quarterly, Boulder, CO., 1976.
Owen V. Johnson, SLOVAKIA 1918-1938; Education and the Making of a Nation, East European Monographs no. 180, New York, 1985.
Johnson teaches in the School of Journalism, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN. He is a specialist on the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Stanislav J. Kirschbaum, A History of Slovakia, New York, 1995
Kirschbaum is professor of political science and coordinator, International Studies Programme York University, Toronto. This is a survey written from the Slovak point of view.
Jozef Lettrich, History of Modern Slovakia, London, 1956
favorable to union with Czechs.
Joseph A. Mikus, SLOVAKIA. A Political History, 1918-1950, Milwaukee, Wisc., 1963
very anti-Czech.
(b) The Ruthenians in interwar Czechoslovakia
Paul Robert Magocsi, THE SHAPING OF A NATIONAL IDENTITY. SUB-CARPATHIAN RUS', 1848-1948, Cambridge, Mass., 1978 (Part 1 ch. 4, Part 3, ch. 10-12). 1982.
Magocsi, who authored the excellent Historical Atlas of East Central Europe (Seattle, WA, 1994, new eds. 2001, 2003), Ukraine. A Historical Atlas, (Toronto, 1985), and A History of Ukraine (Toronto, 1996), teaches at the University of Toronto. He is a specialist on modern Ukraine
(c) Poles in interwar Czechoslovakia: Zaolzie (Trans Olza)
Boguslaw Kozusznik, The Problem of Cieszyn Silesia, London, 1943.
good presentation of Polish point of view. Kozusznik was then a member of the Polish National Council attached to the Polish government-in-exile. He worked in Poland after the war, died in 1999.
Ellen L. Paul, "Czech Teschen Silesia and the Controversial Czechoslovak Census of 1921," Polish Review, vol. XLIII, no. 2, 1998, pp. 161-171.
The author obtained her Ph. D. at the University of Kansas, 1999. This work is based on her dissertation research, done with the aid of Fulbright and Irex fellowships in the Polish and Czech republics.
(d) The Germans in interwar Czechoslovakia:
Herman Kopecek, "Zusammenarbeit and Spoluprace: Sudeten German-Czech cooperation in Interwar Czechoslovakia," in: NATIONALITIES PAPERS, vol. 24, no. 1, ed., Nancy M. Wingfield, March 1996, pp. 63-78;
Radomir Luza, THE TRANSFER OF THE SUDETEN GERMANS. A Study of Czech-German Relations, 1933-1962, New York, 1964 (Introd., Part I, II, through the Munich Crisis of 1938, pp. 1-186).
for R. Luza, see Mamatey and Luza book on the Czechoslovak Republic, above.
Elizabeth Wiskemann, CZECHS AND GERMANS. A Study of the Struggle in the Historic Provinces of Bohemia and Moravia, London, Oxford, New York, Toronto, 1938, 2d sed., 1967 a classic.
E. Wiskemann was a British journalist and scholar; she originally wrote the book for the Royal Institute of International Affairs; it is still a valuable study.
(e) The Jews in interwar Czechoslovakia.
"The Jewish Question and Other Aspects of Modern Czechoslovakia," (esp. articles on J. Q. in Slovakia), EAST CENTRAL EUROPE, vol. 10, Parts 1-2, University of California, Irvine, CA, 1983.
For a briefoverview, see:
Peter F. Sugar et al, eds., A History of Hungary, (Bloomington, IN, 1990). ch. XVII and part of XVIII.
See also:
Jorg K. Hoensch, A History of Modern Hungary. 1867-1996, London, 2nd ed., 1996
Hoensch (d. 2003) was Professor of East European History at the University of the Saarland, Saarbrucken, Germany. The book is translated from German by Kim Traynor. This edition covers the post-communist period to mid-1994. There is a useful chronology of Hungarian history through July 1994, and a bibliography listing works, most in German.
Paul Ignotus, HUNGARY, New York, 1972
very good on intellectual history by a Hungarian. Ignotus (b. 1901) was imprisoned in communist Hungary after World War II (see his memoirs, published 1960).
The most detailed study is :
C. A. Macartney, October Fifteenth. A History of Modern Hungary 1929-1945, 2 vols., Edinburgh, 1961.
Macartney, a British historian of the Habsburg Monarchy and Hungary, was a Magyarophile.
(ii). On Hungarian statesmen of the interwar period, see:
(a) Is