Doing Business in Poland, by Price Waterhouse Team. Warsaw. Price Waterhouse Sp. z o.o. [Ltd.] [ul Bagatela 14, 5th floor, 00-950 Warsaw]. 1992. 184 pages. XIV Appendices. Paper.
A guide for businesses wishing to explore Polish manufacturing and market possibilities. The five sections deal with business climate, doing business, audit and accounting, taxation and the Price Waterhouse company in Poland. The 24 chapters cover general information, foreign investment opportunities, investment incentives, regulatory environment, banking and finance, exporting to Poland, business entities, labor relations and social security, audit and accounting practices, tax system and tax treaties, partnerships and joint ventures. Appendices deal mostly with taxes: corporate income tax rates, depreciation taxes, structuring an investment and settling up in Poland.
Steel Will: The Life of Tad Sendzimir, by Vanda Sendzimir. New York. Hippocrene Books. 1994. 368 pages. Index. Hardcover. $24.95.
A very readable account by the daughter of Polish-born Tad Sendzimir who revolutionized the American steel industry. Sendzimir was an inventor and entrepreneur who "dramatically improved a way to galvanize steel and a new type of mill that could roll steel strip down to half the thickness of a human hair....he made it possible...for radar to be mounted on airplanes in World War II, and material from his mills formed the outer shell of the Apollo spacecraft." [quoted from Preface] Too bad the author's conception of Poland consists mostly of vignettes of relatives and places where her father spent his youth. Her understanding of Poland and what Poland represents in Europe is one millimeter deep. But she clearly is a talented person, one from whom more books could be expected.
The person who photographed her for the dust cover did her no favor. A longer review to follow.
Casimir Pulaski: A Hero of the American Revolution, by Leszek Szymanski. Foreword by Brig. Gen. (US Army, Ret.) Thaddeus W. Maliszewski. New York. Hippocrene Books. 1994. 316 pages. Maps & Index. Hardcover. $24.95.
A contentious, well-documented and enjoyable account of Count Casimir Pulaski's American years. The descriptions of his contribution to the battles of Brandywine, Germantown and Savannah are particularly valuable. Gen. George S. Patton, Jr. has been called by some "a follower of Pulaski." The best book on Pulaski yet.
The Emerging Atlantic Culture, by Thomas Molnar. New Brunswick, NJ. Transaction Publishers [New Brunswick, NJ 08903]. 1994. 113 pages. Hardcover.
Just off the presses, this profound book by one of the great thinkers of our time considers the possible results of American-European interaction, mutual influences and the love-hate relationship between Europe and the United States. The author, a Hungarian by birth, is one of the few persons of our time acculturated both to Europe and America where he has taught philosopy of religion for many years and where most of his books have appeared. While east central Europeans are often left out of the field of vision by Americans writing about Europe, this book does not make that mistake.
An Eye for an Eye: The Untold Story of Jewish Revenge Against Germans in 1945, by John Sack. New York. Basic Books ( A Division of HarperCollins Publishers). 1993. xii + 252 pages. Index. Hardcover. $23.00.
The author argues that the key posts in the Soviet-run secret police in post-World War 2 Poland were staffed by Polish Jews, often themselves survivors of the Holocaust, who ran prisons in ways resembling those of their former persecutors. He concentrates on the camps in Schwientochlowitz (Swietochlowice) and Kattowitz (Katowice), its former staff (now in western Europe, the United States, and Israel) and its survivors.
Did the Children Cry? Hitler's War Against Jewish and Polish Children, 1939-1945, by Richard C. Lukas. New York. Hippocrene Books. 1994. 320 pages. Photographs. Hardcover. $24.95.
Based on interviews and documentary research, this book details what appears to have been a deliberate decision by the Nazis to destroy the children of the nations deemed undesirable. Jewish children were marked for total destruction in 1942. Since 1939, Polish Catholic children were starved, killed, or Germanized in accordance with Hitler's plan to reduce the Polish nation to a small complement of semi-literate slaves.
Fryderyk Chopin: Pianist from Warsaw, by William G. Atwood. New York. Columbia University Press. 1987. xiii + 305 pages. Index. Hardcover.
?This masterly work on Poland's favorite nineteenth-century composer is a superb armchair read. It deserves to be praised and periodically reviewed in the Polish American press.
Hunting Cockroaches and Other Plays, by Janusz Glowacki. Evanston, Illinois. Northwestern University Press. 1990. 216 pages. Hardcover.
Contains "Cinders" (trans. by Christian Paul), "Hunting Cockroaches" (trans. by Jadwiga Kosicka), and "Fortinbras Gets Drunk" (no translator mentioned). These plays contain a good dose of east European self-assertion.
European and American Constitutionalism in the Eighteenth Century. Edited by Michal Rozbicki. Warsaw. American Studies Center, University of Warsaw (Browarna 8/10, 00-311 Warsaw, Poland). 1990. 150 pages. Paper.
A collection of articles by Polish, German and American professors on the American Constitution of 1790, the Bill of Rights, and the Polish Constitution of 1791.
The Summit Times: Central and Eastern European-American Journal. Vol. 1 (Winter 1994). Published by the Wladyslaw Poniecki Charitable Foundation, 8637 Arbor Drive, El Cerrito, CA 94530-2728. Edited by A.M. Salski. 16 pages. Subscription price: $12.00/yr.
We welcome this new bilingual publication. Technically impeccable and published on good paper, the journal is still seeking its editorial profile. Intellectual credibility of the journal would be strengthened by identifying authors of articles not just by name but also by the accomplishments which make them experts on topics they are writing about. A plague of Polish journalism is a lack of such identification; this allows persons unfamiliar with the literature on the subject to opine on matters they have not sufficiently studied. In any case, we wish the ST best.
Other Books Received: Dagny Juel Przybyszewska: the Woman and the Myth, by Mary Kay Norseng. Seattle and London. University of Washington Press. 1991. xix + 219 pages. Hardcover.