When an independent Poland reappeared on the map of Europe after World War I, it was widely regarded as the most Catholic country on the continent, as "Rome's Most Faithful Daughter." All the same, ...the relations of the Second Polish Republic with the Church-both its representatives inside the country and the Holy See itself-proved far more difficult than expected.Based on original research in the libraries and depositories of four countries, including recently opened collections in the Vatican Secret Archives,Rome's Most Faithful Daughter: The Catholic Church and Independent Poland, 1914-1939presents the first scholarly history of the close but complex political relationship of Poland with the Catholic Church during the interwar period.Neal Peaseaddresses, for example, the centrality of Poland in the Vatican's plans to convert the Soviet Union to Catholicism and the curious reluctance of each successive Polish government to play the role assigned to it. He also reveals the complicated story of the relations of Polish Catholicism with Jews, Freemasons, and other minorities within the country and what the response of Pope Pius XII to the Nazi German invasion of Poland in 1939 can tell us about his controversial policies during World War II.Both authoritative and lively,Rome's Most Faithful Daughtershows that the tensions generated by the interplay of church and state in Polish public life exerted great influence not only on the history of Poland but also on the wider Catholic world in the era between the wars.
Bowling played a key role in community life among Polish Americans in Milwaukee during the first half of the 20th century. This working-class pastime was uniquely suited to industrial Milwaukee, ...which long held the reputation as "America's bowling capital," and the Polonia of the city accounted for a dominant share of its bowling public, focused for the most part in alleys within taverns on the Polish "South Side." The locally-based Polish American Bowling Association attempted to unite Polish American bowling nationwide under its leadership. The bowling culture of Polish Milwaukee came to an end by mid-century, linked with larger social phenomena such as suburbanization and ethnic succession in what had been traditional ethnic urban neighborhoods.
When Anna M. Cienciala, professor emerita of history at the University of Kansas, died unexpectedly in December 2014, the loss was respectfully acknowledged in an obituary notice in The Polish Review ...(vol. 60, no. 1, 2015), as befit her stature in the field of Polish and eastern European history. But the suggestion quickly emerged that the passing of someone so prominent in the history of the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America and its journal called for something more, so I invited a number of scholars and acquaintances to offer contributions to an issue of the Review that would be largely dedicated to a tribute to her career. The response was more than generous. In fact, word got around, and we received additional submissions, unsolicited but fully welcome and worthy of inclusion, motivated by spontaneous respect for the accomplished historian and mentor being honored. The result is the following section, the collaboration of ten colleagues, friends, beneficiaries, and admirers of Professor Cienciala.
Anna M. Cienciala died on December 24, 2014, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, en route from vacation to her home in Lawrence, Kansas. She was Professor Emerita of History and at the Center for Russian, ...East European and Eurasian Studies at the University of Kansas, where she had taught for nearly four decades, and became one of the world’s most eminent and respected scholars on the recent history of Poland and international relations. She was also a longtime mainstay of the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America and The Polish Review.
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