Polish Americans

Polish Americans are American of predominantly Polish descent. There was a large immigration of Polish Catholics to the U.S. 1890-1914. Some returned but most stayed. They were unskilled farm workers but did not enter farming in America. Instead they took unskilled manual labor jobs in burgeoning heavy industry, especially coal mining (in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Illinois), meatpacking (in Chicago), steel (Pittsburgh, Gary), construction (in many large cities). The favorite destinations were large industrial cities near the Great Lakes , especially Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee and Cleveland, Buffalo and Pittsburgh.

Bibliography

• Anders-Silverman, Deborah. Polish-American Folklore. U of Illinois Press, 2000.
• Brozek, Andrzej. Polish Americans, 1854-1939 (1985)
• Bukowczyk, John J. A History of the Polish Americans (2007)* Bukowczyk, John J. And My Children Did Not Know Me: A History of the Polish-Americans (1987)
• Bukowczyk, John J., ed. Polish Americans and Their History. U of Pittsburgh Press, 1996.
• Bukowczyk, John J. Poletown: Urban change in industrial Detroit : the making of Detroit's east side, 1850-1990 (1991)
• Galush, William J. For More Than Bread: Community and Identity in American Polonia, 1880-1940, (East European Monographs, distributed by Columbia University Press; 313 pages; 2007). Explores competing versions of Polish identity in Polish-American communities during the period.
• Gladsky, Thomas S. Princes, Peasants and Other Polish Selves: Ethnicity in American Literature. (1992), ISBN 0870237756. online version
• Jackson, David J. "Just Another Day in a New Polonia: Contemporary Polish-American Polka Music." Popular Music and Society. 26#4 (2003) pp: 529+. online version
• Kantowicz, Edward R. Polish-American Politics in Chicago, 1888-1940 (1975) 267 pages excerpt and text search
• Lopata, Helena Znaniecka, Polish Americans: Status Competition in an Ethnic Community (1976), ISBN 0136864368. online version
• Mcginley, Theresa Kurk. "Embattled Polonia Polish-Americans and World War II." East European Quarterly. 37#3 2003. pp: 325+. online version
• Majewski, Karen. Traitors and True Poles: Narrating a Polish-American Identity, 1880-1939, (2003) - 248 pages excerpts and text search
• Nowakowski, Jacek. Polish-American Ways (1989)
• Pula, James S. Polish Americans: An Ethnic Community (1995)
• Pula, James S. "Image, Status, Mobility and Integration in American Society: The Polish Experience." Journal of American Ethnic History 16 (1996): 74-95.
• Sadler, Charles. "Pro-Soviet Polish Americans: Oskar Lange and Russia's Friends in the Polonia, 1941-1945," Polish Review 22, (1977), 4: 30+
• Silverman, Deborah. Polish-American Folklore (2000) excerpt and text search
• Wytrwal, Joseph A. Poles in American History and Tradition (1969),
• Zurawski, Joseph L. Polish American History and Culture: A Classified Bibliography (1975)

Primary sources

• Mostwin, Danuta. Testaments: Two Novellas Of Emigration & Exile (2005) excerpt and text search
• Thomas, William, and Florian Znaniecki. The Polish Peasant in Europe and America. 2 vol 1920, ISBN 0252010922 (1984 printing). ; famous classic online edition