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Series Editor’s Preface
- Ohio University Press
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series editor’s Preface In the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth, the lands of partitioned Poland bled off “surplus” population that migrated in search of bread and work. Over three hundred thousand Poles found their way to the coal mines of the ruhr; 160,000, to the collieries of northeastern Pennsylvania . Given the similarities of their principal industry and their immigrant populations, these two sites offer up a nearly perfect opportunity to investigate how different social structures, governmental policies, and political systems affected the process of immigrant incorporation. The Borders of Integration: Polish Migrants in Germany and the United States, 1870–1924, Brian mccook’s study of Poles in Germany’s ruhr region and in northeastern Pennsylvania, is a model of how comparative history can highlight factors and conditions that have helped produce widely varying historical outcomes. “cast as an internal ‘other’ against which German and american national identities became defined,” mccook writes, “Poles experienced significant levels of discrimination; their presence both in the workplace and larger society was increasingly deemed undesirable, even dangerous, by large segments of the general public and the state.” yet, after fifty or so years at their respective destinations, Polish migrants achieved different levels of social integration, different organization patterns , and different types of identity. In the best transnational fashion, The Borders of Integration, winner of the Polish american historical association ’s stanley a. Kulczycki Prize, thus illuminates the respective histories of two classic migration stories, hitherto usually treated separately in the historical literature. But mccook’s pioneering research also holds profound implications for current debates involving the incorporation of contemporary immigrants into today’s host societies. Publication of the Ohio University Press Polish and Polish-american studies series marks a milestone in the maturation of the Polish studies field and stands as a fitting tribute to the scholars and organizations whose efforts have brought it to fruition. supported by a series advisory board of accomplished Polonists and Polish-americanists, the Polish and Polish-american xii l Series Editor’s Preface studies series has been made possible through generous financial assistance from the Polish american historical association and that organization’s stanley Kulczycki Publication Fund, the stanislaus a. Blejwas endowed chair in Polish and Polish american studies at central connecticut state University, and the Kosciuszko Foundation, and through institutional support from Wayne state University and Ohio University Press. The series has benefited from the warm encouragement of many persons, including Gillian Berchowitz, m. B. B. Biskupski, the late stanislaus a. Blejwas, Thomas duszak, mary erdmans, Thaddeus Gromada, anna JaroszyńskaKirchmann , James s. Pula, Thaddeus radzilowski, and david sanders. The moral and material support from all of these institutions and individuals is gratefully acknowledged. John J. Bukowczyk ...