Andrzej Pleszczyński's new study contributes to a growing body of scholarship that seeks to understand how German expansion east of the Elbe (the so-called Drang nach Osten) came to be seen as a “civilizing” process of neighboring “savage” Slavs, especially Poles. The Birth of a Stereotype traces the perception of Poland and its early rulers in medieval German narrative sources. Based on a close reading of primary texts and manuscript illuminations, the work spans the period from the oldest reference to Poland's first historically known ruler Mieszko I in 963 to the collapse of the first Piast monarchy in 1034.

The first chapter traces medieval descriptions of Mieszko I as the “King of the North” to their classical origins in Greek stereotypes of barbarian peoples (10–36). Next, it examines Mieszko I's early titles, which demonstrate not only the reaction of German elites to Mieszko I's growing power (72), but also the Polish ruler's own attempts to adopt the behavior of the Germanic elite (324). A detailed analysis is given of Mieszko I's titles in two manuscript versions of the Fulda Obituary Annals (87–99). Although Pleszczyński is correct in stating that this record of donation to Fulda clearly stands as a “document of the Piast's own initiative” (99), namely a record of the newly Christianized ruler's donation to a major German monastery, the brevity of the record provides insufficient support for his claim that Polish rulers consciously attempted to change the negative stereotype of the Slav in the wider “‘public opinion’ of the German empire” (6).

The second chapter focuses on the reign of Bolesław the Brave (r. 992–1025), when “two extreme attitudes towards the Piasts . . . began to develop” (109): the first a vision espoused by Otto III in which Poland would become part of the Ottonian “universal empire” (312, 317–18) and Bolesław would receive a royal crown (314). This view, in Pleszczyński's opinion, was opposed by some Saxon elites (318) who instead argued, as best articulated by the chronicler Thietmar of Merseburg, that Bolesław “should be obedient and pay a tribute to the Germans” (326).

Pleszczyński's third and final chapter argues that it was in the reign of Bolesław's son, Mieszko II, that German attitudes toward Poland polarized and finally remained highly negative “with the vast majority of German sources referring to the Polish rulers and their state with varying levels of distrust, sometimes even hostility” (232). Pleszczyński convincingly demonstrates that the laudatory portrait of Mieszko II in the eleventh-century liturgical book known as Mathilda's Codex (Codex Mathildis) (254–86) originated only among western German nobles who, like Mieszko II, were opposed to Conrad II (286). He concludes by arguing that the negative image of Poland in German chronicles emerged from the circles of Conrad II (286) who felt that he alone was the “successor of the Carolingians” (329). Pleszczyński states that the coronations of both Bolesław and Mieszko II in the year 1025 without imperial consent horrified Emperor Conrad II (328-329) because to be formally crowned and anointed as a Christian king “comprised the same sanctified rites as those undergone by Carolingian rulers and their successors” (309), a privilege claimed exclusively by Conrad II's dynasty (308, 329).

The reasons why the negative view of Poland became permanently entrenched after 1025 are not sufficiently explained. Pleszczyński dismisses as a chronicler's “inconsistency” the fact that the biographer of Conrad II, Wipo, actually laments Mieszko II's death and praises Mieszko II's Christianization efforts in Poland (293–94). Furthermore, although Pleszczyński notes that it is anachronistic to speak of medieval Polish and German relations as those between “states” (3–4) because “virtually each group of regional aristocracy had their own interests and aspirations, often conflicting with those of the crown” (219), he uses the term “state” throughout his analysis (1, 6, 9, 10, 11, 38, 107, 108, 109, 223). For example, Pleszczyński attributes the small number of German sources on Mieszko II's reign to “the weakening of the Piast state” (285).

Finally, The Birth of a Stereotype stands in need of further editing, especially because at times grammatical errors can impede comprehension of the text (84, 151, 164). An index of terms would also have been helpful. Although not all aspects of its argument convince, Pleszczyński's study offers useful insights into this formative period of Polish-German relations in light of studies of medieval historiography, kingship, and elite culture.