Putting Poland, Ukraine, and Russia in Context with Norman Davies

The Slavic Connexion

On this episode, luminary historian Professor Norman Davies joins us to talk about the state of Polish studies, the deep history of Ukraine when it was ruled from Warsaw and Krakow, and the importance of broadening European and Slavic studies as taught in academic spaces. This episode was all about historical context, so we hope you enjoy. Thanks for listening!

ABOUT THE GUEST
Norman Davies, born in 1939 in Bolton (Lancashire) was educated at Bolton School, Magdalen College, Oxford, the University of Sussex and at several continental universities including Grenoble, Perugia and Kraków. His formative years created a lifelong European outlook. He was for many years Professor of History at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London, and has also taught as a visitor to Columbia, McGill, Hokkaido, Stanford, Harvard, Adelaide, and Australian National, Canberra.

He is the author of White Eagle, Red Star: the Polish-Soviet War, 1919-20 (1972): God’s Playground: A History of Poland (1981); the No.1 bestseller Europe: A History (1996); The Isles: A History (1998); Microcosm: Portrait of a Central European City (with Roger Moorhouse, 2002); Rising ’44, the Battle for Warsaw (2003); Europe at War, 1939-45 (2006); and Vanished Kingdoms (2011). His books have been translated into more than twenty languages, and he is a regular broadcaster.

From 1997 to 2006 he was a Supernumerary Fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford, and is now an Honorary Fellow at St. Antony’s College, Oxford and Professor at the Jagiellonian University, Cracow. He has been a Fellow of the British Acadamy since 1997 and since 2011 of the Learned Society of Wales. He has been awarded Poland’s Order of the White Eagle and in Britain the CMG ‘for services to history’. He holds honorary doctorates from several universities in Britain and Poland as well as the honorary citizenship of five cities, and is a life member both of Clare Hall and of Peterhouse Cambridge.

He lives in Oxford and Krakow with his wife, Maria, and has two grown sons, Daniel and Christian.

“There is too much history,” he says, “for anyone to try and understand it all.”

Visit his website: http://www.normandavies.com/?lang=en

PRODUCER'S NOTE: This episode was recorded on September 23rd, 2022 via Zoom. A special thanks to Michalina at the Warsaw Security Forum for facilitating the conversation.

If you have questions, comments, or would like to be a guest on the show, please email [e-mail] and we will be in touch!

CREDITS
Associate Producer/Host: Cullan Bendig (@cullanwithana)
Assistant Producer/Host: Sergio Glajar
Associate Producer: Lera Toropin (@earlportion)
Assistant Producer: Misha Simanovskyy (@MSimanovskyy)
Social Media Manager: Eliza Fisher
Supervising Producer: Katherine Birch
Recording, Editing, and Sound Design: Michelle Daniel

Music Producer: Charlie Harper (@charlieharpermusic) www.charlieharpermusic.com (Main Theme by Charlie Harper and additional background music by The Polish Ambassador, Audiorezout, and Makaih Beats)

Executive Producer & Creator: Michelle Daniel (@M_S_Daniel) www.msdaniel.com

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Special Guest: Norman Davies.