With a fresh and lively look, new writers, lots of reviews and book news, plus great features, CR blends topics light and serious, old and new, all of them focusing – or merely touching upon – something Polish, but not necessarily from a Polish perspective.
A tsunami of honours fell upon Bill Johnston in 2012. CR surfs on that giant wave with a few observations of its own, along with some from Tamara Trojanowska and from students who will never forget him.
Poland’s magnificent, 10-million strong opposition movement to communism, Solidarity, was not only successful, but it was peaceful. No matter the provocation, Solidarity never resorted to violence. When it achieved victory, it remained true to its commitment to peace. There were no reprisals, no show trials, no riots; some hated monuments [...]
Stories are like literary genetics, essential to one’s identity. But how does a storyteller rise above competing voices, break through non-stop background noise, and seduce an audience? Justine Jablonska looks at the issues and offers some possibilities.
…there’s a symmetry between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the French-English multicultural country I’ve grown up in… and it seems fitting that Polish and Canadian troops often fought side by side in WWII. That’s a good place to start rebuilding a sense of who I am, says Andrew Borkowski.
The photo was unmistakably me, in Nehru shirt and bell bottoms, a cigarette dangling rakishly in my right hand… on the front page of Czechoslovakia’s Socialist Union of Youth newspaper. Of course it was all a misunderstanding – but nothing was easy to explain back then. My father thrust the [...]
(*President Poland, of course.)
Isabelle Sokolnicka’s optimism may be contagious…
all the more reason to read on.
It’s easy to say which nation has the fastest trains (France) or the largest number of prime ministers who’ve probably been eaten by sharks (Australia), but it’s impossible to know which country has the best writers, let alone the best poets. Even so, if cash money were on the line, you’d find few critics willing to bet against Poland.
- David Orr,
The New York Times,
July 29, 2007
Isabelle Sokolnicka concurs, and thinks the language may have something to do with it.
If you can’t say it, and you can’t spell it, can you remember it?
Philosophical thought in 19th century Europe inspired citizens of nation-states to develop a sense of nationalism. Poland existed as a nation but not as a state. As World War I came to an end and Poles fought against their Germanization and Russification, developments in mathematics helped establish Polish identity. During [...]
Yes, those WWII death camps really were Germany’s camps, whether in Germany itself or in countries Nazi Germany occupied. If there were a “Teacher of the Year” award, it would certainly go to KF’s president, Alex Storozynski.
Poland, which lies on the Eastern front of NATO and the EU, sometimes finds itself in the middle of East-West political posturing.
The New York-born Chief Rabbi of Poland, Michael Schudrich, says, “Accusing Poles of participation in the Holocaust is a sin.” Yet on a regular basis, American journalists do just that by calling Auschwitz a “Polish concentration camp.” This is Holocaust revisionism, writes Kosciuszko Foundation’s Alex Storozynski.
Jan Kowalczewski explores the correlation between currants and what it means to be Polish – and how this plant’s positive qualities have helped it persevere.
More than $1 trillion in development-related aid has been transferred to Africa – & it’s not helping. Africans are worse off because of it, claims Zambian economist Dambisa Moyo.
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