My Slovakia, My Family: One Family's Role in the Birth of a Nation - Softcover

True to its title this book presents much of the history of Slovakia while narrating the story of the author's family, one of the most notable in the country's history. Part genealogy, part historical analysis, and part immigrant story Palka's narrative covers a span of 300 years. Starting in the era of the craft guilds the book concludes with the author's personal encounters in the Slovakia of today – a Slovakia that reflects both the culture and its turbulent history. Including ordinary people as well as towering historical figures, this is a fascinating and superbly documented biography of the Hodža and Pálka families' significant role in Slovak history.

Dr. John Palka is a retired professor of Biology (University of Washington, Seattle) with an academic specialty is neuroscience. He is the winner of numerous prestigious awards in this field, including two Fulbright Fellowships for teaching in India and a Guggenheim Fellowship for research in Cambridge, England. The breadth of his interests is revealed in the titles of courses he developed, among them "Brains, Consciousness, and Evolution, " "Science and Culture," and "Nature in Scripture." He is the co-founder of the University of Washington's highly lauded Program on the Environment. He and his wife Yvonne have two daughters and five grandchildren, two of them already in college.