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Norman Davies
Ph.D., F.B.A., F.R.Hist.S., D.Litt.
Born 8 June 1939 (1939-06-08) (age 71)
Fields European History
Institutions School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London
Wolfson College, University of Oxford
Alma mater Magdalen College, University of Oxford (B.A. Hons)
University of Sussex (M.A.)
Jagiellonian University (Ph.D.)
Notable awards Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland
Professor Ivor Norman Richard Davies[1] FBA, FRHistS (born 8 June 1939) is a leading English historian[2] of Welsh descent, noted for his publications on the history of Europe, Poland, and the United Kingdom.
[edit] Academic career
He was born to Richard and Elizabeth Davies in Bolton, Lancashire. Davies studied in Grenoble, France (1957–1958). He was a disciple of A. J. P. Taylor at Magdalen College, Oxford where he earned a B.A. (history, with honours) in 1962. He earned an M.A. (1966) at University of Sussex. He studied in Perugia, Italy. He intended to study for a PhD in the Soviet Union, but was denied an entry visa. Instead, he went to Kraków to study at the Jagiellonian University and do research on the Polish–Soviet War. As this war was denied in the official communist Polish historiography of that time, he was obliged to change the title of his dissertation to The British Foreign Policy towards Poland, 1919–20. After obtaining a Ph.D. (1968) in Kraków, the English text appeared under the title White Eagle, Red Star. The Polish-Soviet War 1919–20 in 1972.
From 1971, Davies taught Polish history at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES) of the University of London, where he was professor from 1985 to 1996. Currently, he is Supernumary Fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford. Throughout his career, Davies has lectured in many countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, China, Poland, and in most of the rest of Europe as well.
The work which established Davies' reputation in the English-speaking world[citation needed] was God's Playground (1981), a comprehensive overview of Polish history. In Poland, the book was published officially only after the fall of communism. In 2000, Davies' Polish publishers Znak published a collection of his essays and articles under the title Smok wawelski nad Tamiz¹ ("The Wawel Dragon on the Thames"). It is not available in English.
In 1984, Davies published Heart of Europe, a briefer history of Poland. Interestingly, the chapters are arranged in reverse chronological order.
In the 1990s, Davies published Europe: A History (1996) and The Isles: A History (1999), about Europe and the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, respectively. Each book is a narrative interlarded with numerous sidepanel discussions of microtopics.
In 2002, at the suggestion of the city's mayor, Bogdan Zdrojewski, Davies and his former research assistant, Roger Moorhouse, co-wrote a history of Wroc³aw / Breslau, a Silesian city. Titled Microcosm: Portrait of a Central European City, the book was published simultaneously in English, Polish, German and Czech.
Davies also writes essays and articles for the mass media. Among others, he has worked for the BBC as well as British and American magazines and newspapers, such as The Times, The New York Review of Books and The Independent. In Poland, his articles appeared in the liberal Catholic weekly Tygodnik Powszechny.
Davies' book Rising '44. The Battle for Warsaw describes the Warsaw Uprising. It was followed by Europe at War 1939-1945: No Simple Victory (2006). In 2008 Davies participated in the documentary film "The Soviet Story".[4]
[edit] Criticism
Some historians, most vocally Lucy Dawidowicz[5] and Abraham Brumberg,[6] object to Davies' historical treatment of the Holocaust in Nazi-occupied Poland. They accuse him of minimizing historic antisemitism, and of promoting a view that accounts of the Holocaust in international historiography largely overlook the suffering of non-Jewish Poles. Davies’s supporters contend that he gives due attention to the genocide and war crimes perpetrated by both Hitler and Stalin on Polish Jews and non-Jews. Davies himself argues that "Holocaust scholars need have no fears that rational comparisons might threaten that uniqueness. Quite the opposite." and that "...one needs to re-construct mentally the fuller picture in order to comprehend the true enormity of Poland’s wartime cataclysm, and then to say with absolute conviction ‘Never Again’."[7][8]
In 1986, Dawidowicz’s criticism of Davies’ historical treatment of the Holocaust was cited as a factor in a controversy at Stanford University in which Davies was denied a tenured faculty position for alleged "scientific flaws". Davies sued the university for breach of contract and defamation of character, but in 1989 the court ruled that it did not have jurisdiction in an academic matter.[1][3]
[edit] Awards and distinctions
Davies holds a number of honorary titles and memberships, including honorary doctorates from the universities of the Jagiellonian University (since 2003), Lublin, Gdañsk and Warsaw (since 2007), memberships in the Polish Academy of Learning (PAU) and the Academia Scientiarum et Artium Europaea,[9] and fellowships of the British Academy and the Royal Historical Society.[10] Davies received an honorary DLitt degree from his alma mater the University of Sussex.[11] Davies is also an honorary citizen of Polish cities of Warsaw, Wroc³aw, Lublin and Kraków. Member of the committee for the Order of the Smile.
President of the Republic in exile Edward Raczyñski decorated Davies with the Order of Polonia Restituta. On December 22, 1998, President of Poland - Aleksander Kwaœniewski awarded him the Grand Cross (1st class) of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland.
Norman Davies has been appointed to the Advisory Board of the European Association of History Educators - EUROCLIO. 2008 he was given by the Estonian Republic Order of the Cross of St Mary’s Land 3rd Class.
[edit] Personal
Norman Davies married Maria Zieliñska, a Polish physician born in D¹browa Tarnowska, on 26 December 1966. They live in Oxford and Cracow, and have two sons.[12]
[edit] Publications1972: White Eagle, Red Star: The Polish-Soviet War, 1919–20. (2004 edition: ISBN 0-7126-0694-7)
1977: Poland, Past and Present. A Select Bibliography of Works in English. ISBN 0-89250-011-5
1981: God's Playground. A History of Poland. Vol. 1: The Origins to 1795, Vol. 2: 1795 to the Present. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-925339-0 / ISBN 0-19-925340-4.
1984: Heart of Europe. A Short History of Poland. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-285152-7.
2001: Heart of Europe: The Past in Poland's Present Oxford University Press, USA; New edition ISBN 0-19-280126-0
1991: Jews in Eastern Poland and the USSR, 1939–46. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0-312-06200-1
1996: Europe: A History. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-820171-0
1997: Auschwitz and the Second World War in Poland: A lecture given at the Representations of Auschwitz international conference at the Jagiellonian University. Universitas. ISBN 83-7052-935-6
1999: Red Winds from the North. Able Publishing. ISBN 0-907616-45-3
1999: The Isles. A History. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-513442-7
2002 (with Roger Moorhouse): Microcosm: Portrait of a Central European City London: Jonathan Cape. ISBN 0-224-06243-3
2004: Rising '44. The Battle for Warsaw. London: Pan Books. ISBN 0-333-90568-7
2006: Europe East and West: A Collection of Essays on European History. Jonathan Cape. ISBN 0-224-06924-1
2006: Europe at War 1939–1945: No Simple Victory. Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-69285-3
2010: Vanished Kingdoms: The Lives amd Afterlives of Europe's Lost Realms. Allen Lane. ISBN 9781846143380
Ph.D., F.B.A., F.R.Hist.S., D.Litt.
Born 8 June 1939 (1939-06-08) (age 71)
Fields European History
Institutions School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London
Wolfson College, University of Oxford
Alma mater Magdalen College, University of Oxford (B.A. Hons)
University of Sussex (M.A.)
Jagiellonian University (Ph.D.)
Notable awards Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland
Professor Ivor Norman Richard Davies[1] FBA, FRHistS (born 8 June 1939) is a leading English historian[2] of Welsh descent, noted for his publications on the history of Europe, Poland, and the United Kingdom.
[edit] Academic career
He was born to Richard and Elizabeth Davies in Bolton, Lancashire. Davies studied in Grenoble, France (1957–1958). He was a disciple of A. J. P. Taylor at Magdalen College, Oxford where he earned a B.A. (history, with honours) in 1962. He earned an M.A. (1966) at University of Sussex. He studied in Perugia, Italy. He intended to study for a PhD in the Soviet Union, but was denied an entry visa. Instead, he went to Kraków to study at the Jagiellonian University and do research on the Polish–Soviet War. As this war was denied in the official communist Polish historiography of that time, he was obliged to change the title of his dissertation to The British Foreign Policy towards Poland, 1919–20. After obtaining a Ph.D. (1968) in Kraków, the English text appeared under the title White Eagle, Red Star. The Polish-Soviet War 1919–20 in 1972.
From 1971, Davies taught Polish history at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES) of the University of London, where he was professor from 1985 to 1996. Currently, he is Supernumary Fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford. Throughout his career, Davies has lectured in many countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, China, Poland, and in most of the rest of Europe as well.
The work which established Davies' reputation in the English-speaking world[citation needed] was God's Playground (1981), a comprehensive overview of Polish history. In Poland, the book was published officially only after the fall of communism. In 2000, Davies' Polish publishers Znak published a collection of his essays and articles under the title Smok wawelski nad Tamiz¹ ("The Wawel Dragon on the Thames"). It is not available in English.
In 1984, Davies published Heart of Europe, a briefer history of Poland. Interestingly, the chapters are arranged in reverse chronological order.
In the 1990s, Davies published Europe: A History (1996) and The Isles: A History (1999), about Europe and the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, respectively. Each book is a narrative interlarded with numerous sidepanel discussions of microtopics.
In 2002, at the suggestion of the city's mayor, Bogdan Zdrojewski, Davies and his former research assistant, Roger Moorhouse, co-wrote a history of Wroc³aw / Breslau, a Silesian city. Titled Microcosm: Portrait of a Central European City, the book was published simultaneously in English, Polish, German and Czech.
Davies also writes essays and articles for the mass media. Among others, he has worked for the BBC as well as British and American magazines and newspapers, such as The Times, The New York Review of Books and The Independent. In Poland, his articles appeared in the liberal Catholic weekly Tygodnik Powszechny.
Davies' book Rising '44. The Battle for Warsaw describes the Warsaw Uprising. It was followed by Europe at War 1939-1945: No Simple Victory (2006). In 2008 Davies participated in the documentary film "The Soviet Story".[4]
[edit] Criticism
Some historians, most vocally Lucy Dawidowicz[5] and Abraham Brumberg,[6] object to Davies' historical treatment of the Holocaust in Nazi-occupied Poland. They accuse him of minimizing historic antisemitism, and of promoting a view that accounts of the Holocaust in international historiography largely overlook the suffering of non-Jewish Poles. Davies’s supporters contend that he gives due attention to the genocide and war crimes perpetrated by both Hitler and Stalin on Polish Jews and non-Jews. Davies himself argues that "Holocaust scholars need have no fears that rational comparisons might threaten that uniqueness. Quite the opposite." and that "...one needs to re-construct mentally the fuller picture in order to comprehend the true enormity of Poland’s wartime cataclysm, and then to say with absolute conviction ‘Never Again’."[7][8]
In 1986, Dawidowicz’s criticism of Davies’ historical treatment of the Holocaust was cited as a factor in a controversy at Stanford University in which Davies was denied a tenured faculty position for alleged "scientific flaws". Davies sued the university for breach of contract and defamation of character, but in 1989 the court ruled that it did not have jurisdiction in an academic matter.[1][3]
[edit] Awards and distinctions
Davies holds a number of honorary titles and memberships, including honorary doctorates from the universities of the Jagiellonian University (since 2003), Lublin, Gdañsk and Warsaw (since 2007), memberships in the Polish Academy of Learning (PAU) and the Academia Scientiarum et Artium Europaea,[9] and fellowships of the British Academy and the Royal Historical Society.[10] Davies received an honorary DLitt degree from his alma mater the University of Sussex.[11] Davies is also an honorary citizen of Polish cities of Warsaw, Wroc³aw, Lublin and Kraków. Member of the committee for the Order of the Smile.
President of the Republic in exile Edward Raczyñski decorated Davies with the Order of Polonia Restituta. On December 22, 1998, President of Poland - Aleksander Kwaœniewski awarded him the Grand Cross (1st class) of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland.
Norman Davies has been appointed to the Advisory Board of the European Association of History Educators - EUROCLIO. 2008 he was given by the Estonian Republic Order of the Cross of St Mary’s Land 3rd Class.
[edit] Personal
Norman Davies married Maria Zieliñska, a Polish physician born in D¹browa Tarnowska, on 26 December 1966. They live in Oxford and Cracow, and have two sons.[12]
[edit] Publications1972: White Eagle, Red Star: The Polish-Soviet War, 1919–20. (2004 edition: ISBN 0-7126-0694-7)
1977: Poland, Past and Present. A Select Bibliography of Works in English. ISBN 0-89250-011-5
1981: God's Playground. A History of Poland. Vol. 1: The Origins to 1795, Vol. 2: 1795 to the Present. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-925339-0 / ISBN 0-19-925340-4.
1984: Heart of Europe. A Short History of Poland. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-285152-7.
2001: Heart of Europe: The Past in Poland's Present Oxford University Press, USA; New edition ISBN 0-19-280126-0
1991: Jews in Eastern Poland and the USSR, 1939–46. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0-312-06200-1
1996: Europe: A History. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-820171-0
1997: Auschwitz and the Second World War in Poland: A lecture given at the Representations of Auschwitz international conference at the Jagiellonian University. Universitas. ISBN 83-7052-935-6
1999: Red Winds from the North. Able Publishing. ISBN 0-907616-45-3
1999: The Isles. A History. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-513442-7
2002 (with Roger Moorhouse): Microcosm: Portrait of a Central European City London: Jonathan Cape. ISBN 0-224-06243-3
2004: Rising '44. The Battle for Warsaw. London: Pan Books. ISBN 0-333-90568-7
2006: Europe East and West: A Collection of Essays on European History. Jonathan Cape. ISBN 0-224-06924-1
2006: Europe at War 1939–1945: No Simple Victory. Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-69285-3
2010: Vanished Kingdoms: The Lives amd Afterlives of Europe's Lost Realms. Allen Lane. ISBN 9781846143380