[1] To write the book, Wańkowicz collected a great amount of background information, and he carried out dozens of interviews, starting with President Ignacy Mościcki and ending with sailors, coal miners and primary school teachers.

Mariusz Grabowski of Polska The Times, wrote in February 2012 that Sztafeta reads like a national myth, with every page a gem praising Minister of the Treasury Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski and the Sanacja government.

In the foreword, Wańkowicz states that the title of the book refers to an historic relay race, whose objective is to make Poland a developed and industrial nation.

Furthermore, Wańkowicz claims that the May Coup of 1926 may have been connected with Germany's admission into the League of Nations, since Józef Piłsudski came to the conclusion that under the circumstances, he should take control of both the foreign policy and the army of Poland.

Altogether, 182 Polish doctors and nurses died at the Baranowicze quarantine center, and in 1923, a monument dedicated to them was unveiled there: "Over the dead bodies, we headed towards the reconstruction of Poland" (page 37).

In this chapter, Wańkowicz describes his pre-World War I adventures, when with friends he hiked across the future Central Industrial Area, which before 1914 had been divided between the Russian Empire and Austria-Hungary.

The population of the center of Poland, the area bounded by the Pilica, the Bug rivers and the Beskids mountain range, which amounts 5 million people, is suffocating due to unemployment and small farms.

(page 101) The construction of Southern Works, as Huta Stalowa Wola was called, gave employment to 2,500 people, additional 1,500 built the town: "We do not have any Vickers, Armstrongs, or Schneiders.

Here, Zgoda, Zieleniewski, Ostrowiec, and Jenike shook hands (...) The plant will employ 4,000, new settlement, with sewer system, laundries, baths, casinos and sports facilities is being built.

As part of Austria-Hungary, it was dirt poor and destitute, like the whole province of Galicia: "Now, a convoy of shiny Buicks and Fiats enters Rzeszów, together with three buses of Polish State Railways.

They established the iron ore deposits here, and now are considering further examination of the area (...) And when we look at the roads crowded with people, when we look at the Jews, minding their own businesses, we realize that we are one of the most densely populated nations of Europe.

Wańkowicz recalls first Polish attempts at creating synthetic rubber, and compares them to the Germans, working at IG Farben, as well as Soviet efforts of the early 1930s.

Due to the work of such persons, as minister Wojciech Świętosławski, Professor Kazimierz Kling and Wacław Szukiewicz of Warsaw's Chemical Research Institute, Polish synthetic rubber made from potatoes, and called KER (an acronym for Kauczuk ERytrenowy), was produced in 1935.

Oil wells of the region were of particular importance, and on Sunday, May 17, 1919, the suburbs of Drohobycz were captured by a mounted company of 180 men, led by Colonel Stanisław Maczek.

Wańkowicz begins this chapter by recalling the destruction, caused by the senseless de-forestation in the northeastern portion of the Second Polish Republic (currently this area belongs to Belarus).

Poland, however used to be a rich country, which lost is wealth and capital due to the stupidity of the Polish nobility, which did not invest the money and did not have any plans concerning national economy, preferring to spend its funds on expensive clothes and oriental specialties.

(page 274) The situation began to improve after the creation of Congress Poland, due to the efforts of Stanisław Staszic, when iron plants were opened between Radom and Sandomierz, at Suchedniów and Końskie (see also Old-Polish Industrial Region).

Failure of the November Uprising stopped the development of Congress Poland, but soon afterwards Piotr Steinkeller initiated a program of industrialization and modernization: "A few years passed after the defeat of 1831.

(pages 304–312) Wańkowicz goes on to remind the reader that widespread poverty was one of major problems of the Second Polish Republic: "Ten million people do not have enough food and do not have a permanent job.

Ten million unemployed only in the countryside without those from urban communities (...) They are a dead material, which has to be fed, which has to work, which has to go beyond simple animalistic needs (...) Eighty per cent of Poland lies outside of the Central Industrial Area.

An osadnik named Kostrzewski, from the village of Chocieńczyce (near Wilejka), writes: "I am surprised by the fact that the Soviets make great propaganda about their Dneprostroi, while a book about Polish efforts is being published only now".

At Denków [now a district of Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski], 600 kids study in two shifts in one crowded schoolhouse (...) Within a few months, 1,000 Poles expelled from France with their children settled in Iłża County.

In the first years of the Second Polish Republic, rail transport was very difficult; it took 22 hours to travel from Warsaw to Wilno, due to a destroyed bridge near Grodno: "Now, the prophecy of Ferdinand de Lesseps is becoming reality.

(pages 359–368) The first Polish long-distance international flight took place in 1926, when Captain Bolesław Orliński, together with his mechanic, Leon Kubiak, flew from Warsaw to Tokyo, and back.

We have women's sailplane long distance world record of Wanda Modlibowska (24 hours and 14 minutes), and finally, we have the 1938 Lilienthal Gliding Medal, granted to Tadeusz Góra for his May 18, 1938 flight from Bezmiechowa Górna to Soleczniki (577,8 kilometers).

In the Middle Ages, Poland ruled a much wider shoreline, with such ports, as Gdańsk, Kołobrzeg, Kamień Pomorski, Szczecin (Wańkowicz spells it Szczucin), Wolin.

Finally, Gdynia was chosen, the very same spot mentioned by Hetman Stanisław Koniecpolski, who wrote to King Władysław IV Vasa, stating that it was a very convenient location for a sea port: "Now, if Stefan Żeromski was still alive, we would take him here.

(pages 404–413) This chapter begins with a reflection on the general condition of Poland in the late 1930s: "This nation grows by half a million a year, but we do not have space for such growth.

(pages 419–421) Wańkowicz mentions those Poles who travelled and succeeded abroad: Krzysztof Arciszewski (a vice-governor of Dutch Brazil), Maurycy Beniowski (ruler of a community in Madagascar), French Navy Captain Adam Mierosławski, Paweł Strzelecki (geologist and explorer), Ignacy Domeyko (geologist and educator, who spent most of his live in Chile), Bronisław Rymkiewicz (engineer, who built the Amazon river port at Manaus), Ernest Malinowski (who constructed a railway in the Peruvian Andes), Benedykt Dybowski (naturalist and physician), Mikołaj Przewalski (explorer of Central Asia), and many others.

(pages 516–527) The final chapter of the book is an afterword, in which the author recalls some events from Polish history, wishing that the Poland of the future would be based on two foundations, freedom and strength.