'It has been said that Louis XIV invented France and Napoleon made it. Like Napoleon 150 years later, Louis found a country in turmoil and determined to turn it into a functional, modern state'

Halik Kochanski's magisterial work on the cruel and chaotic legacy of World War II in Poland is history at its best

Russia Against Napoleon by Dominic Lieven

Poland used to be written off as a failed state. But it has survived Nazism and communism to become a model for Europe

Behind Closed Doors: Stalin, the Nazis and the West by Lawrence Rees