ID a SF book/series -- Engineer time travels, Poland becomes center of civilization?

I read these book(s) back in the 70s in SF Book club editions, I think. Possibly a trilogy? At least one of the books might have had ‘Engineer’ in the title.

The plot was basically “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court”, only the hero goes back to medieval Poland, gets befriended by the king, and proceeds to introduce engineering breakthroughs and so Poland turns into the heart of science/tech/industrial innovation. (I suspect the author was of Polish ancestry and was avenging too many years of ‘backward Poles’ jokes.)

A random bit that stuck in my mind: Somehow as a result it becomes normal for maps to be shown in an orientation other than North at the top.

Ring any bells?

Sounds like Conrad Stargard by Leo Frankowski.

I read The Cross-Time Engineer at some point.

The plot also sounds a little like that of Three Hearts and Three Lions, by Poul Anderson (an excellent book, BTW), though as the protagonist in that one is a Danish engineer, I’m pretty sure that’s not it (and, it also looks like @What_Exit has a better answer).

Oddly that was my first thought. I loved that book. Pretty sure I still have it despite giving away 90% of my books.

That’s it! Thank you! (Dang, the new system doesn’t let you do that “The SDMB hive mind comes through in 16 minutes!” thing anymore.

I had no idea there were that many books in the series, must see which can still be gotten.

Oh, and I loved “Three Hearts and Three Lions,” too. I should have put that that wasn’t the answer in my OP.

If you hover over the time since the post, you see the post time.
Your post: 12:26pm
My Reply: 12:33pm
So elapsed time: 7 minutes.

I think I read the first couple of books and the story seemed to be getting progressively more self-indulgent (e.g. less about industrialization and more about a schlubby middle-aged guy having sex with hot women). I much preferred de Camp’s “Lest Darkness Fall”.

Read the first 4 or 5 books and skip the rest. Anything that deals with the time after the Tartar invasion is total crap.

As an aside, if you’re a fan of the time-traveling engineer genre, check out @CalMeacham’s The Traveler.

Oh – Thank you so very much.

Why is the OP hidden?

Must be you. I can read it.

I see the name of the OP and icon, but get “ignored content”?

That usually means you put the OP on your ignore list.

nope - if i’ve got someone on ignore, their icon doesn’t show up at all. Plus, I don’t recall ever putting Starving but Strong on ignore.

You can check. Click on the OP’s name. This opens a small window. Click on their name in this small window. This sends you to their profile page. Look in the upper right corner of the profile page and it will tell you if you have them on Normal status or on Ignore.

Thanks - that works. Have no idea how that happened.

Do you have a reference to the book? I tried to search on the title at kobo.com but get several books that at first sight might qualify (time travel, ‘the traveler’).

Here it is on Kobo

Here it is on Amazon and Kindle

Thanks, bought it. I really liked Lest darkness falls, from the description this might be a good read as well.