THE DRAMA OF UPPER SILESIA

By - William John Rose. Stephen Daye Press, Brattleboro, Vermont, 1935. Pp. 349.

Last June Professor Rose left the Department of Sociology at Dartmouth to go to the University of London. His scholarly work on Upper Silesia is the result of two years of intensive study in that troubled area, a study made possible through the Social Science Research Council. Professor Rose possesses admirable qualifications for writing such a book-a thorough knowledge of the Polish and German languages and several years residence in Poland after the World War. He has made every effort to be entirely fair to both sides, but his warm affection for Poland is evident throughout.

The first and somewhat longer portion of the book is devoted to the period of German domination in Upper Silesia, while the second portion discusses the Polish regime since 1922. Throughout the work is broadly conceived, and covers administration and politics, economic problems of land, mine and factory, and the cultural factors of religion, education and the press. Since Professor Rose is primarily a sociologist it is not surprising that the best parts of the book should be those where he analyses the church, school and press. The whole second portion of the book is excellent and very interesting, but the earlier portion suffers somewhat, at least from the historian's point of view, from a failure to pay sufficient attention to chronology. Indeed, at times, it is difficult to tell just when some of his figures lived and worked. A few minor slips should perhaps be noted. On page 223 there is some confusion between nominal and real wages. On page 37 Frederick William IV is called the successor to Frederick the Great. On pages 115, 122 and 256 vague references are made to authors whose names fail to appear in the bibliography.