The anthology Life and work of Štefan Boleslav Roman brings welcome speeches and popularizing, professional and scientific contributions that were heard at the international scientific seminar of Slovak Matica, which took place on October 26, 2022 in Martin. In the introductory preface, the compiler of the almanac, Zuzana Pavelcová, states the inspirations of the registry staff, which led to the preparation of the scientific seminar and compilation of the almanac.

The honorable place of the first published speech in the collection belongs to the Reverend Dušan Tóth, the former general secretary of the Slovak World Congress and a personal friend of Štefan Roman. In the commemorative address, he reflects on the joint work and the moral and character qualities of this personality. The current chairman of the World Association of Slovaks Abroad – the organization that followed the idea and work of the Slovak World Congress – Vladimír Skalský, offers a short biography of Štefan Roman.

The speech concludes with a contribution by the chairman of Matica slovenská, Marián Gešper, who summarizes the benefits of Roman’s work for the Slovak nation and the efforts of Matica slovenská to maintain and popularize his memory. A contribution based mainly on oral history and family memory is provided by Ján Chovanec. He deals with unique stories from the Roman´s family, which he recorded in Nový Ruskov since childhood as a more distant Roman´s relative. He also summarizes his own efforts for the benefit and memory of Roman’s life and work on a national and international scale. Study of Beata Katrebová Blehová shares knowledge about the circumstances of the creation of the Slovak World Congress from the point of view of international politics. It analyzes how the cooperation between the individual leading figures of the Slovak political exile and Štefan B. Roman regarding the establishment of the Slovak World Congress worked, how the institutional cooperation worked, what was the response in other Western countries where Slovak exile organizations were based and, finally, how the Czechoslovak communist regime responded to then-newly established World Congress of Slovaks. Peter Jašek mapped the activities of the Slovak World Congress in the second half of the 80s of the 20th century and Roman’s work in the congress in the period from VII General assembly of the Slovak World Congress in June 1984 in New York until his untimely death in March 1988. It focuses on the events in the congress during the breakthrough period of modern history, when the geopolitical reality of the Cold War changed and it became obvious that the communist regimes were moving towards their fall. This situation had a stimulating effect on the activities of the congress and its political outputs. The recapitulation of the most important outputs (all nine) of the General Assemblies of the Slovak World Congress was brought by the material of Radoslav Žgrada. The work captures the historical development, creation and functioning of this authority of Slovaks abroad. He focused mainly on the basic outputs of the general assemblies, which reflected current political developments, whether in Slovakia or abroad, such as resolutions, declarations, statements, memoranda, responses, speeches or letters. Zuzana Pavelcová focused on the relations between Matica slovenská and the Slovak World Congress. In the 1970s and 1980s, especially during the presidency of Vladimír Mináč, Matica slovenská was subject to a consolidation process. Paradoxically, during this period, cooperation with Slovaks living abroad, under the control of the communist regime, significantly developed and strengthened. With the establishment of the Slovak World Congress, whose main goal was democracy and the fight for the national rights of the Slovaks, these two institutions came into various contacts, which is analyzed. It also changes about Štefan Roman’s legacy after the fall of the communist regime and its maintenance by Matica slovenská. Pavel Parenička’s study focuses on the economic theories of Štefan Boleslav Roman and Eugen Löbl published in the publication Responsible Society. It provides short biographies of both compatriot authors and analyzes the economically oriented publication, especially in terms of content. The author approaches the views of Roman and Löbl, who critically reject communism and its Marxist-Leninist political economy, and are equally dismissive of capitalism in Smith’s work. They come up with a theory of a responsible society based on conservative values, which is based on three basic pillars: full employment, stable prices and ecological solutions.

The almanac closes with a short informative contribution by Joseph M. Burza dedicated to the new representative literary work of the Canadian-Slovak Chamber of Commerce – the publication Štefan B. Roman: Uranium King.