From Publishers Weekly
The Warsaw rising of 1944—not to be confused with the Warsaw Ghetto uprising of 1943—pitted Polish insurgents of the Home Army against the Germans in a two-month battle that left the city in ruins. Almost as bitter are the historiographical controversies over the failure of the Allies, particularly the Soviets, whose army was idling nearby, to rescue the city. Davies (Europe: A History) offers an enthralling, impressionistic account of the uprising, highlighted by vivid reminiscences from Polish and German participants, but the bulk of this sprawling book is concerned with the political background and aftermath. Delving into the diplomatic wranglings between the exiled Polish government in London, the Western Allies and Stalin, Davies sides with the anti-Communist interpretation of the episode as the opening chapter in the Soviet takeover of Eastern Europe. He denounces Stalin for deliberately allowing the non-Communist Home Army to be crushed, the Western Allies for acquiescing and British intellectuals for toeing the Communist line on Poland, and includes a pointed litany of Stalinist crimes in post-war Poland. Davis is correspondingly enthusiastic about the insurgents. He exonerates them of charges of anti-Semitism, reprints poems and songs about them and, working from iffy figures on German casualties, extols their combat prowess. Davis is persuasive on many points, and his somewhat romantic defense of the rising—which failed in its objectives and triggered the German massacre of tens of thousands of civilians—amply conveys its heroism, but may not convince readers of its wisdom. Photos.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
It has been the Poles' sad historical fate to be caught between two voracious powers, Germany on the west and Russia on the east. This was most tragically evident during the 1944 uprising against the Nazi occupiers in Warsaw. Professor Davies^B tells that story with passion, compassion, and a justifiable sense of outrage. By the summer of 1944, the Wehrmacht was a spent force in the east and had been pushed to the Vistula River by the Soviets. The Polish resistance, essentially loyal to the Polish government in exile, began a massive rebellion in the streets of Warsaw. Stalin's army, only a few miles away, refused to provide help. Given Stalin's cynicism and distrust of the exile government, that was not surprising, but the Americans and British, through a combination of indifference and incompetence, also failed the Poles. 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^B the life out of the rebellion while reducing Warsaw to rubble. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Max Hastings, Sunday Telegraph (London)
[Davies’] knowledge and his passion are displayed in this notable book. His research among Polish and Soviet sources is exhaustive...

Book Description
In August 1944, Warsaw presented the last major obstacle to the Red Army’s 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. Like Antony Beevor’s bestselling The Fall of Berlin, Rising ’44 is a brilliant narrative of one of the most dramatic episodes in twentieth-century history.

About the Author
Norman Davies is a supernumerary Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford, Fellow of the British Academy and of the Royal Historical Society, and Professor Emeritus at London University. His books include Europe: A History (a New York Times Notable Book), The Isles: A History, and the definitive history of Poland, God’s Playground.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"In August 1944, Warsaw appeared to present the last major obstacle to the Soviet army's triumphant march from Moscow to Berlin. When the Wehrmacht was pushed back to the Vistula River, the people of Warsaw believed that liberation was at hand. So, too, did the Western leaders. The Polish Resistance poured forty thousand armed fighters into the streets to drive out the hated Germans, but Stalin condemned the Rising as a criminal adventure and refused to cooperate. The Wehrmacht was given time to regroup, and Hitler ordered the city and its inhabitants to be utterly destroyed." "For sixty-three days, the resistance battled the SS and Wehrmacht - in the cellars and sewers. Tens of thousands of defenseless civilians were slaughtered week after week. One by one, the city's districts were reduced to rubble as Soviet troops watched from across the river. Poland's Western allies expressed regret, but decided that there was little to be done. The sacrifice was in vain. Hitler's orders were executed. Poland was not to be allowed to be governed by Poles." Largely sidelined in history books and often confused with the Ghetto Uprising of 1943, the 1944 Warsaw Rising was a pivotal moment both in the outcome of the Second World War and in the origins of the cold war. Now on the sixtieth anniversary of the Rising, Norman Davies's extraordinary book brings it vividly and movingly to life.

SYNOPSIS

Not to be confused with the Ghetto Uprising of the year before, the Warsaw Rising of 1944 saw the Polish Resistance attempt to throw out the German occupiers only to be mercilessly crushed while the Soviet Army stood passively by. Before treating the events of the rising itself, Davies (emeritus, London U., UK) narrates the road leading up to the Rising from the separate perspectives of the Allies, the German occupiers, the Soviet Red Army, and the Polish Resistance, dealing with each in turn. He also explores the aftermath of the Rising up to the present time. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

FROM THE CRITICS

Carlo D'Este - The New York Times

… Rising '44 is much more than the story of the Warsaw uprising. It is one of the most savage indictments of Allied malfeasance yet leveled by a historian. Unsparing in his depictions of the slaughter of the Polish fighters and the destruction of their capital, Davies challenges the popular assumption that World War II was entirely the triumph of good over evil.

Mark Lewis - The Washington Post

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

Library Journal

Oxford fellow Davies recalls a turning point in World War II. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews