The Struggle and the Triumph: An Autobiography

by Lech Wałęsa

Relates Walesa's rise from the Gdansk shipyard to the presidency and chronicles the history of Solidarity

Genres: Politics, Biography, World History, History

330 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Lech Wałęsa is a Polish politician and a former trade union and human rights activist. He co-founded Solidarity (Solidarność), the Soviet bloc's first independent trade union, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, and served as President of Poland from 1990 to 1995.

Source: Wikipedia.com

Reviews

[Sharon]

This autobiography covers the period between Walesa's release from incarceration to his election as president of Poland. Walesa comes across as jovial and blustering, with a humble love for his church and a sharp political caginess for the rest of the world. The Walesa portrayed here loves his own reputation and dignity, but is also deeply committed to nonviolence and a peaceful change in power, and abandoned legitimate resentments for the sake of pluralism. I did not expect to like a politician this much.

This book does not provide much background for understanding the situation of Poland under the Soviets. There is a timeline and glossary in the back of the book, but they are of limited help, and in the e-book version they are a little difficult to use. Still, I learned more about Poland than I ever knew before, and now I want to learn more.

[George]

He is such an interesting person to read about because you can tell just what kind of person he is by the way he talks about himself

[TravelTzar]

Good reminder about peaceful actions to overcome.

[Jacob]

This is such a good book. Walesa is surprisingly clear and, though he's not Shakespeare, talks about his life in a very poignant and fascinating manner. It is also an eye-opener of sorts, in that one never hears much about any of these sort of revolutions or current world affairs here in the United States. The information is either very brief on the news or altogether absent. Also, being of Polish descent myself, reading this book was a great way to learn contemporary Polish history and learn a little about the people, culture, and life under the oppressive communist regime that was removed from power by Walesa and his movement, Solidarnosc (Solidarity), by an entirely non-violent means.

This book probably means more to those of Polish or Slavic descent than it does to others, but I would say that it is a great book for anyone wishing to learn about some modern history of Poland, Lech Walesa himself, or what life was like under the communist regime.

Great book!

[Anthony]

Very interesting for learning about Walesa and his times. But I often didn't feel like he was taking the reader serious. This is more a "political" book with an agenda - or a book of a politician with an agenda - than an actual autobiography in my opinion. I am also not sure the role of the church is quite as important as Walesa likes it to be seen in this book. I felt often like the author wants me to believe arguments without the perception on his side to need to provide any evidence for points made. I finished the book with less respect for Walesa then I had going into it. I am not sure how serious he really took the people he represented and their actual interests... From the impressions I received from this book I am rather led to have doubts about the integrity of Walesa.

[Czarny Pies]

Jailbirds don't draw a salary so Walesa may have been motivated by the need to make money for his family when he wrote this.

In all likelihood better books will appear in the future on Walesa. If you bought the book take pride in the thought that i was for a good cause.

[Andrew]

Very interesting book, informative and whatnot. I was very surprised that, for being a sort-of non-violent activist saint, Walesa has quite a bit of of an ego!

[Anna]

It's all in the perspective of time now... but it's good to see thing from his point of view.

[Dola]

good