Oskar Halecki

Oskar Halecki ( born May 26, 1891 in Vienna, † September 17, 1973 in New York) was a leading medieval and modern times historians in Poland in the interwar period. He dealt particularly with the Polish Jagello and Byzantine history.

The son of a senior Austrian officer went to study in Krakow. There he received his doctorate with a thesis on the incorporation of the territories of Podlasie, Volhynia and Kiev by the Union of Lublin in 1569 in the Polish crown. Three years later he was habilitated with a work on the Polish-Lithuanian conflict in the 14th century. He was a 1918/1919 to an expert of the Polish delegation at the Paris Peace Conference. In 1922, he served for two years as secretary of the Commission Internationale de Coopération intellectual in Geneva. In 1927 he became Commander of the Pontifical Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great. From 1919 to 1939 he was professor at the University of Warsaw. At the International Congress of Historians in 1933 in Warsaw, he shaped the first fundamental debate about the self- understanding of the historical sub-discipline of Eastern European history. In 1940 he was forced to emigrate to the USA, where he worked in New York, the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences in America ( PIASA ) founded in 1942. It functioned as a center of Polish historiography in exile. From 1944 to 1961 Halecki was Professor of East European History at Fordham University in New York.

In the U.S. Halecki developed his history of East Central Europe as a regional conception of historical forest landscape, which he in his seminal book today Borderlands of Western Civilization. 1952 A History of East Central Europe introduced to the public.

Writings (selection )

• From Florence to Brest ( 1439-15969 Sacrum Poloniae Millennium, Rome, 1958 ( in Polish:. .. . Od Unii Florenckiej do Unii Brzeskiej ( = Biblioteka Europy Środkowo - Wschodniej Vol 4) 2 volumes Instytut Europy Środkowo - Wschodniej, Lublin 1997, 83-85854-29-0 ISBN ).
• The limits and divisions of European history. Sheed & Ward, London ua 1950 ( In German language: Europe borders and outline its history University Press, Darmstadt 1957 in Polish:. .. Historia Europy - jej Granice i podziały ( = Biblioteka Europy Środkowo - Wschodniej Vol. 1). Instytut Europy Środkowo - Wschodniej, Lublin 1994, ISBN 83-85854-01-0 ).
• Borderlands of western civilization. A history of East Central Europe. Ronald Press Company, New York NY 1952 ( 2nd edition Edited by Andrew L. Simon Simon Publications, Safety Harbor FL 1980, ISBN 0-9665734 8- X ( online ( PDF, .. 1.23 MB) ), in German language: border area of the West A History of East Central Europe Müller, Salzburg 1956).. .
• Eugeniusz Pacelli, papież pokoju. Wydawnictwo Hosianum, London, 1951 ( In English: Pacelli Pope of peace Farrar, Straus and Young, New York NY 1951 in Spanish: .. . Eugenio Pacelli: el Papa de la paz Populibros " La Prensa ", Mexico City 1957).
• A history of Poland. Roy, London, 1943.
• Nowe uwagi krytyczne o wyprawie warneńskiej ( Polska Akademia = Umiejętności. Rozprawy Wydziału Historyczno - Filozoficznego. 2 Series, Vol 45, 5, ZDB - ID 402 199 -x). Polskiej Akademii Umiejętności, Krakow 1939 ( In English: The crusade of Varna A discussion of controversial problems ( = Polish Institute Series No. 3, ZDB - ID 1191648-5 ) Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences in America, New York.. . NY 1943).
• Idea Jagiellonian. In: Kwartalnik Historyczny. Vol 51, ​​No. 1/2, 1937, ISSN 0023-5903, pp. 486-510 (in German language: the Jagellonian idea ( = translations of the publication point 117, ZDB - ID 1290857-5 ) Publication place, Berlin- Dahlem. 1938).
• History of the Union of Lithuania with Poland ( Poland = border problems. Vol. 3). Perles, Vienna 1919.
• Poland's eastern border in light of the history of Eastern Galicia, the Chelmer country and Podlaskie ( Poland = border problems. Vol. 1). Perles, Vienna 1918 digitized.
• The nationalities problem in the old Poland. Central Publishing House of the Polish Supreme National Committee Bureau, Krakow 1916 digitized.