Simon Rees

Hitler’s Third Reich and Stalin’s Soviet Union invaded Poland in September 1939 and the two autocracies proved utterly ruthless in their efforts to subjugate the Polish people. The resultant loss of life was almost unimaginable in scale but Poles from all walks of life refused to submit, either at home or abroad. Germany turned on its Soviet ally in June 1941, with Britain, the USA and the USSR eventually becoming partners in the war against Hitler. At various meetings and conferences, the ‘Big Three’ agreed post-war Poland would fall into the Soviet sphere of influence and Poles fighting for a free and independent country found themselves cut adrift. They had a stark choice after VE Day: live in Poland dominated by Stalin’s puppets or face a life in exile. Betrayal of Poland is the first major English-language compendium of Polish first-hand accounts from the Second World War. Two of the witnesses flew over the Third Reich and faced the deadly threat of night fighters and flak. One fought at Hill 262 in Normandy, joining the effort to close the Falaise Gap, while another was parachuted into the Arnhem campaign. Two saw the horrors of Auschwitz: one from behind the wire and the other outside it. Others detailed the hell of being deported into Stalin’s Soviet Union and their daily struggle to survive. Departing the USSR and joining what became the Polish II Corps, many went onto fight at Monte Cassino. Finally, several witnesses recalled life under German Occupation and how they joined the Warsaw Uprising – the unequal and ultimately doomed battle against some of Hitler’s most-murderous units. Backed by comprehensive appendices and several never-seen-before photographs, this work is a must-have for anyone interested in Polish history or the Second World War.

Creative thinking, be it that of the teacher or the student, has tended to be overlooked in science, but exercising it is important. This book shows how it can be done in chemistry, both in the context of creative chemistry teaching and in learning chemistry. Going beyond principles and ideology, readers will find practical strategies, tools, examples, and case studies in a variety of contexts to bring creative thinking theory into practice. Beginning with a discussion on the nature of creativity, the authors’ debunk misconceptions and address the relationship between creativity and problem solving. Delving into opportunities for practising creative thinking in science, for instance, hypothesis generation and experiment design, the authors’ then move on to discussions around assessing and evaluating creative thinking. Further areas covered include: multisensory chemistry, language and literacy, practical work and story-telling. As a resource, this book points the way to fostering exploration and the development of creative thinking in chemistry for the benefit of the student, and for the benefit of the teacher in offering a source of satisfaction and achievement in the work they do. With a foreword by John Holman.

Distributed by the University of Nebraska Press for Whale and Star Press Modeled after the famed TV sci-fi series The X-Files, The &-Files gathers together a covert body of documents following the long and often controversial career of Art & Text, one of the landmark contemporary art magazines of the 1980s and 1990s. Founded in Melbourne, Australia, in 1981 by Paul Taylor (1957–92), who soon moved to New York City to make his mark as an art critic, the magazine went on to become one of a handful of international art magazines that succeeded in capturing the turmoil and passing brilliance of that period of postmodernism. Perceived through the eyes and ears of its longtime publisher and editor Paul Foss, The &-Files is comprised of an open letter, a lengthy interview, two questionnaires, and other commentaries and bibliographies, offering a unique insider account of the extraordinary advantages and pitfalls of publishing an art magazine.