The Roots Are Polish

REVIEWS:

"A collection of interviews with Polish personalities in Poland and abroad. Many interviewees are veterans of the Second World War; some are Canadian politicians, still others Yiddish or Polish writers. The volume contains valuable information as it rambles along the borders of notoriety and fame. Ziolkowska-Boehm is a talented and entertaining interviewer".
Sarmatian Review, September 2004


“In “The Roots are Polish”, Ziolkowska-Boehm crosses back and forth across the Canadian-American border to bring together eighteen interviews with military officers, politicians, physicians, scientists, writers, and artists of the same generation of Polish immigrants. Two of the better chapters are those in which she reminisces about her meetings with Polish authors Isaac Bashevic Singer and Czeslaw Milosz. Unrestrained by the interview format, Ziolkowska-Boehm mixes the authors’ words with her emotional responses to provide the reader with a complex portrait of the two men. In “Three Profiles of a Poet”, for example, Ziolkowska-Boehm draws on personal contacts with the 1980 Nobel Prize laureate, as well as excerpts from his book “Beginnig with my Street”, to capture his full emotional range, from the acrobic to the avuncular. (…)
While the credentials and achievements of the subjects of “The Roots Are Polish” are impressive, in three cases found worthy of the Nobel Prize, may of them are in partucilarly specialized fields, such as Aeronautical Engineeling and Biochemistry. (…)”.
Charles R.Kaczynski, The Polish Review, No 4, 2005


"Ziolkowska-Boehm provides an interesting collection of essays of extraordinary people. People with Polish roots, people from all walks of life and people who have been influential in the world. The eighteen reviewed here live in United States and Canada and include politicians, generals, authors, poets, publishers, translators, architects, inventors, doctors, engineers, inventors and more. Originally published in Poland in 1992, several in the group have died since being interviewed. The author obtained interviews in a variety of methods. She researched the person for background, personally visited some people or interviewed them by phone. Many are well known to Americans—Isaac Singer, Czeslaw Milosz, Korczak Ziolkowski, Zbigniew Brzezinski. Others, such as Stanley Haidasz M.D., Canadian Senator, Janusz Zurakowski, test pilot and a member of Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame, or Zdzislaw Przygoda, Polish-Canadian engineer are little known in the United States. The interviews are exceptional in that they tell of the life work that made the person exceptional in their field in addition to personal experiences while migrating from Poland to Canada or the United States. (...)".
Florence Waszkelewicz Clowes, Polish American Journal, Boston, August 2006


"Ostatnio , Kanadyjsko-Polski Instytut Badawczy wydał książkę pt. “The Roots Are Polish”. Jest to niezwykle cenna pozycja dobrze służąca budowaniu prestiżu Polonii w Ameryce Północnej. Zawiera ona wywiady z osiemnastoma wybitnymi Polakami żyjącymi na tym kontynencie. Są wśród nich, między innymi, trzej laureaci Nagrody Nobla, Zbigniew Brzeziński oraz czterogwiazdkowy generał US Air Force. Z Kanadyjczyków polskiego pochodzenia są: S. Haidasz, J. Flis J. Zurakowski i Z. Przygoda".
Edward Soltys, Troskliwy powiernik GONIEC (Toronto) Nr 22 [77] 3-9 czerwca 2005