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Rising '44
The Battle For Warsaw
by Norman Davies


9.7

based on 12 reviews
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based on 7 votes
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Official Publisher Site

An account of one of the most dramatic episodes in twentieth-century history. In August 1944, Warsaw presented the last major obstacle to the Red Armys triumphant march from Moscow to Berlin. When the Wehrmacht was pushed back to the Vistula River, the Polish Resistance poured forty thousand fighters into the streets to drive out the hated Germans. But Stalin halted the Russian offensive, allowing the Wehrmacht to regroup and destroy the city. For sixty-three days Soviet troops and other Allied forces watched from the sidelines as tens of thousands of Poles were slaughtered and Warsaw was reduced to rubble. [Viking Books]

Viking Books, 784 pages
05/06/2004
$32.95

ISBN: 0670032840

Nonfiction
History

All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...

Boston Globe Michael Kenney

Powerful and compelling...Davies provides a gripping account of the Rising, interspersing his narrative with many first-person accounts that detail moments of heroism and of tragedy.

Daily Telegraph Max Hastings

Davies knows more about Poland than any other historian in the West, and possesses a deep romantic love for the Polish people. Both his knowledge and his passion - reflected in rage towards the Allies who betrayed the Rising - are displayed in this notable book. His research among Polish and Soviet sources is exhaustive.

Library Journal Edward Metz

This elegantly written work is manifestly born of a profound passion for the subject and draws upon learned and careful research. Highly recommended for all military history collections. [15 Apr 2004, p.99]

New York Review Of Books Simon Sebag Montefiore

Davies starts with a dedication that catches the complexity of the tragedy he describes so brilliantly: "To Warsaw and to all who fight tyranny regardless." In that last hopeless word lies the essence of his story.

Publishers Weekly

An enthralling, impressionistic account of the uprising, highlighted by vivid reminiscences from Polish and German participants.

The Guardian Angus MacQueen

Rips away at many of our lazy assumptions about the outcome of the second world war: that the Allies won an absolute moral victory and that evil was defeated by good.

The New York Times Book Review Carlo D'este

In the post-9/11 world, Rising '44 is both a morality tale and an unforgiving illustration of what can happen when oppression and terror replace freedom.

Kirkus Reviews

A thorough recounting of what the author considers to be "one of the greatest tragedies of the twentieth century"--and surely one of the most shameful betrayals in the world annals.

Booklist Jay Freeman

Davies uses many newly available sources, and the result is a stirring, emotionally draining saga of heroism, betrayal, and tragedy as the Nazis slowly squeezed the life out of the rebellion while reducing Warsaw to rubble. [1 May 2004, p.1538]

London Review Of Books John Connelly

Davies distributes blame among the major powers, including the United States and Britain. But he does not explore the culpability of the Polish leaders who decided to launch the insurgency.

Washington Post Mark Lewis

Davies writes as an impassioned partisan, determined to force the world to remember the betrayal of the Poles.

Los Angeles Times John Lukacs

Rising '44 deserves to be read by people who know little or nothing about it (so many of them, including important chiefs of state visiting Poland, have confused it with the siege of the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943.) But there is more to ponder about Warsaw 1944 than may be found in this massive book.

The average user rating for this book is 9.7 (out of 10) based on 7 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

wer rew gave it a10:
best book ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

mark t gave it a10:
best book ever. indescribable due to it's written style.

mark t gave it a10:
best book ever

micheal k gave it a10:
thrilling and i could not put it down.

Zygmunt K gave it a10:
Excellent book. I hope people in the USA read it - from what I have seen in US book shops there is a dearth of well informed accounts of the Polish experience in popular US accounts of the Second World War (that's 1939-45 by the way).

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Rising '44 The Battle For Warsaw by Norman Davies

Rising '44
The Battle For Warsaw
by Norman Davies