History /
Recommended Poland's history books [175]
A comment on reading Polish history in English.
In addition to the books I've mentioned in previous posts, I've also finished quite a number of Polish history books that were of a more simple nature.
Examples are John Radzilowski's A TRAVELLER'S HISTORY OF POLAND, 2007; Anira Prazmowska"s A HISTORY OF POLAND, 2004; Iwo Cyprian Pogonowski's POLAND, AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY, 2000; Robert Bubczyk's A HISTORY OF POLAND IN OUTLINE, 2006. I've also read Pawel Jasienica's A TALE OF AGONY, THE COMMONWEALTH OF BOTH NATIONS, Vol. III, 1992 and Patrice Dabrowski's POLAND, THE FIRST THOUSAND YEARS, 2016.
So what is my comment?
I've always enjoyed reading all types of history. When I read the history of France or Sweden or the Ottoman or Seljuk Turks or the Mongols or China or Vietnam the PROPER NAMES are always, always consistent when I read these histories in ENGLISH.
When I read Polish history in ENGLISH not so. Names of towns, of cities, of titles, of provinces, of regions, first names, surnames, foreign names, currency, military, book titles, schools, histories, etc., etc. are always all different. Some of the previous history books I mentioned above even have a preface chapter dealing with PROPER NAME and how they're used. Only Polish history books in ENGLISH have this. No other history books of non-English speaking countries have this unique problem. Not even Chinese history books in English have this problem.
Why is that? Why is there absolutely no consistency what so ever where Polish proper names and nouns are used ???
It's like you're trying to decipher hieroglyphics !!! The ONLY consistency is when the names of rivers are mentioned, That's it !