God's Playground
AuthorNorman Davies
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
SubjectHistory of Poland
PublisherColumbia University Press
Publication date
1981
OCLC416195288

God's Playground: A History of Poland is a history book in two volumes written by Norman Davies, covering a 1000-year history of Poland. Volume 1: The origins to 1795, and Volume 2: 1795 to the present first appeared as the Oxford Clarendon Press publication in 1981 and have since been reprinted in multiple times,[1] and translated into Polish as Boże igrzysko : Historia Polski by Elżbieta Tabakowska (2 volumes in 1, with 1183 pages by Znak Publishers of Kraków).[2] Davies was inspired to the title by Jan Kochanowski's 1580s poem Boże igrzysko ("Mankind: Bauble of the Gods").

The book, which most editions split into two volumes, has received favourable reviews in the international press, and is considered by many historians[3] and other scholars to be one of the best English-language books on the subject of the history of Poland. The author received several Polish honours.

Selected editions

English
  • God's Playground, Columbia University Press, 1979
  • God's Playground, Oxford University Press, 1981, ISBN 0-19-822555-5 (vol. 1), ISBN 0-19-822592-X (vol. 2)
  • God's Playground, Columbia University Press, 1982, ISBN 0-231-05350-9 (vol. 1) and ISBN 0-231-05352-5 (vol. 2)
  • God's Playground, Columbia University Press, 1983
  • God's Playground, Oxford University Press, 1983, ISBN 0-19-821944-X (vol. 2)
  • God's Playground, Columbia University Press, 1984, ISBN 0-231-05351-7 (vol.1), ISBN 0-231-05353-3 (vol. 2)
  • God's Playground, Oxford University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-19-925339-0 (vol. 1) and ISBN 0-19-925340-4 (vol. 2)
  • God's Playground, Columbia University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-231-12817-7 (vol. 1), ISBN 0-231-12819-3 (vol. 2)
Polish
  • Boże igrzysko, bibuła edition in the 1980s
  • Boże igrzysko, ZNAK 1989, ISBN 83-7006-052-8
  • Boże igrzysko, ZNAK 1994, ISBN 83-7006-331-4
  • Boże igrzysko, ZNAK 1999
  • Boże igrzysko, ZNAK 2006, ISBN 83-240-0654-0

Notes

  1. ↑ WorldCat.org (20 December 2017). Formats and Editions of God's Playground: A History of Poland. OCLC 416195288.
  2. ↑ WorldCat.org (20 December 2017). Formats and Editions of Boże igrzysko: Historia Polski. OCLC 60569030.
  3. ↑ "This is a remarkable book... this is a major work that is imaginative, thought-provoking and extremely well written".-- Piotr S. Wandycz, review in The American Historical Review, Vol. 88, No. 2 (Apr. 1983), pp. 436-437, JSTOR
    L. R. Lewitter, review in The Historical Journal, Vol. 26, No. 4 (Dec. 1983), pp. 1032-1034 JSTOR Archived 16 July 2012 at archive.today
    Anna M. Cienciala, review in the Slavic Review, Vol. 42, No. 3 (Autumn, 1983), pp. 510-512, JSTOR
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