China’s Brave New World – and Other Tales for Global Times

Rise of New Global Powers’ (pp. 278–92), which deal with contemporary affairs and reflect prophetically on a range of topics including globalisation (p. 280), Georgia/South Ossetia and Iraq (pp. 258, 285–7). Throughout the volume, Davies’s longstanding preoccupation with restoring East European perspectives to the study of history are given full and convincing voice – not least in his emphasis on Poland as a ‘missing link’ in many western (and particularly American) accounts, given that it was once Europe’s largest and arguably most progressive state until its eventual collapse in the late eighteenth century (pp. 147, 228). Davies revels in the self-appointed role as debunker, and in this mode his writing shines brightest: whether using statistics to skewer the lazy perception of widespread Nazi collaboration among Ukrainians, moderating views on Polish anti-Semitism or correcting the tendency to equate ‘Britain’ with ‘England’. Such broad-ranging volumes will always attract quibbles. Some will doubtless point to inconsistencies in tone and the light-handed touch with academic apparatus, such as footnotes. Yet by and large, the obvious pitfalls are avoided: repetition and error are kept within acceptable bounds, barring one or two strange typos (e.g. pp. 48, 67), and the essays are engaging in their directness, breadth and variety. There are a couple of off-topic oddities, such as an essay on the history of Magdalen College, Oxford (‘Sicut Lillium’), but bearing in mind the nature of the project and target audience, Davies has yet again struck publishing gold. As usual, he never fails to dig up colourful facts for the general reader – many of whom, for example, will be surprised to hear of Nietzsche’s Polish ancestry, a telling encapsulation of Europe’s interwoven past between East and West.