Borderlands Biography: Z. Anthony Kruszewski in Wartime Europe and Postwar America

Beata Halicka’s masterly narrated biography is the story of an extraordinary man and leading intellectual in the Polish-American community.

Z. Anthony Kruszewski was first a Polish scout fighting in World War II against the Nazi occupiers, then Prisoner of War/Displaced Person in Western Europe. He stranded as a penniless immigrant in post-war America and eventually became a world-renowned academic.

Kruszewski’s almost incredible life stands out from his entire generation. His story is a microcosm of the 20th-century history, covering various theatres and incorporating key events and individuals.

Kruszewski walks a stage very few people have even stood on, both as an eye-witness at the centre of the Second World War, and later as vice-president of the Polish American Congress, and a professor and political scientist at world-class universities in the USA. Not only did he become a pioneer and a leading figure in Borderland Studies, but he is a borderlander in every sense of the word.