The Birth of a Stereotype ─ Polish Rulers and Their Country in German Writings C. 1000 A.d.

Pleszczynski (medieval history, M. Curie-Sklodowska U., Lublin, Poland) explores the origins of the Western European perception of Slavs as inferior by taking as a case study German writing about Poles in the formative years of the oldest Piast state, between 963 and 1034. He analyzes the few texts in considerable detail, showing how passages about Poles function within the larger text, and placing the portrayal of Poles in historical and cultural context. His topics are the appearance of the Piast state within eyeshot of the elites in the Liudolfings' empire, opinions of the German elites on the Poland of Boleshal Chrobry during the integration of the Piasts' territorial power into the empire of the Liudolfings, and the polarization of attitudes towards the Polish state and the prevalence of views unfavorable to the Piast monarchy. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Andrzej Pleszczynski, Ph.D (2008) in History, M. Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin, Poland, is Professor of Medieval History at this university. He has published extensively on Polish-German-Czech relations in the Middle Ages and on the medieval ideology of power.