New Views on an Old Planet A History of Global Change Book

Just as Zamoyski puts it, Poland is the one big European nation which remains almost ignored to this day, invisible to the main public. We hardly have even stereotypes about them! And yet, their role in European history was almost as important as that of France.
I doubt whether giving it four stars instead of three. It was definitely a good book. If you have no clue about the history of Poland and suddenly want to be able to hold a conversation about the country (in other words, if you meet a cute Polish girl as I did) then this is your book. Aside from the facts, the book makes a good effort to describe the evolution of art and literature. There is an underlying thesis all along where Poland is seen as some sort of political experiment. Apparently the country was the only mature democracy east of the Rhine, and Zamoyski explains how Germans and Russians did their best to smash it.
You take the chance when the monarchy feels weak, you create a strong parliament, you hold elections and defend your political rights for three centuries, you keep church and state apart in the middle of a continent devastated by wars of religion and then, eventually, Prussia and Russia invade and seize the land. This is basically Polish history between XVI-XVIII centuries. So bad and so interesting.