Peter Stachura

Peter D. Stachura is a British historian, writer, lecturer and essayist. He served as Professor of Modern European History at the University of Stirling and Director of its externally funded Centre for Research in Polish History established in May 2000. Stachura has published extensively on the subject of modern history of Poland and its people, the Polish military effort alongside the Allies, as well as, on the shaping of the Nazi German state and the European Theatre during World War II.^[1] He resides in Stirling (Stirlingshire), Scotland.^[2]

Peter Stachura was born to a Polish military émigré from the Polish Armed Forces in the West formed after the joint German–Soviet invasion of Poland in World War II.^[3] Stachura graduated from the University of Glasgow and completed his PhD at the University of East Anglia in 1971 entitled "The development and organisation of the Hitler youth, 1930-1933".^[4] He was awarded a Doctor of Letters by the University of Stirling in 1994. His main focus is on Polish history till 1945, the post-war history of the Poles in Scotland, Polish government-in-exile as well as the Weimar Republic established in 1919. Stachura served as Director of Centre for Research in Polish History financed by the M B Grabowski Fund and Polonia Aid Foundation Trust, with awards an annual prizes offered to students.^[5][6]

Discourse

In his 2003 book The Poles in Britain 1940-2000: From Betrayal to Assimilation, Peter Stachura presents an analysis of the place of Polish émigrés in the UK following Yalta Conference agreements. In spite of significant contributions to western victory – wrote Stachura – they have experienced "appalling treatment" by the Allies when the war ended.^[7] One of his better known publications is Poland between the Wars 1918 - 1939 (New York: St. Martin's, 1998), the book of collected essays on the subject of internal and ethnic dynamics within the Second Polish Republic, produced in conjunction with the scholarly conference organized by the Polish Society in Great Britain.^[8]

Selected works by Peter D. Stachura

• The Shaping of the Nazi state, Taylor & Francis, 1978 - 304 pages, ISBN 0-85664-471-4
• The German youth movement, 1900-1945: an interpretative and documentary history, 1981 - 246 pages
• Unemployment and the Great Depression in Weimar Germany, Macmillan, 1986 - 230 pages, ISBN 0-333-37646-3
• Themes of modern Polish history : proceedings of a symposium, 1992 - 92 pages
• Poland Between the Wars, 1998 - 153 pages, ISBN 0-312-21680-7
• Poland in the Twentieth Century, St. Martin's Press, 1999, ISBN 0-312-22027-8
• Perspectives on Polish History, University of Stirling, 2001, ISBN 1-85769-148-2
• The Poles in Britain, 1940-2000: from betrayal to assimilation, 2004 - 113 pages, ISBN 978-0-203-50664-6
• Poland, 1918-1945: an interpretive and documentary history of the Second Republic,^[9] Routledge, 2004 - 221 pages, ISBN 0-415-34357-7

Notes and references