Scholarly study covering the period from 1608 to the present.

In the last, rootless decade families, neighborhoods, and communities have disintegrated in the face of gripping social, economic, and technological changes. Th is process has had mixed results. On the positive side, it has produced a mobile, volatile, and dynamic society in the United States that is perhaps more open, just, and creative than ever before. On the negative side, it has dissolved the glue that bound our society together and has destroyed many of the myths, symbols, values, and beliefs that provided social direction and purpose. In A History of the Polish Americans, John J. Bukowczyk provides a thorough account of the Polish experience in America and how some cultural bonds loosened, as well as the ways in which others persisted.

A history of the Polish-Americans and their influence on American history and culture.

This book is the second in a three-part, multi-authored study of Polish American history which aims to present the history of Polish Americans in the United States from the beginning of Polish presence on the continent to the current times, shown against a broad historical background of developments in Poland, the United States and other locations of the Polish Diaspora. According to the 2010 US Census, there are 9.5 million persons who identify themselves as Polish Americans in the United States, making them the eighth largest ethnic group in the country today. Polish Americans, or Polonia for short, has always been one of the largest immigrant and ethnic groups and the largest Slavic group in America. Despite that, common knowledge about its social and political life, culture and economy is still inadequate – in Academia and among the Polish Americans themselves. The book discusses the major themes in Polish American history, such as organizational life and the structure of the community facing subsequent waves of immigration from Poland, its leadership and political involvement in Polish and American affairs, as well as living and working conditions, and the everyday life of families and communities, their culture, ethnic identity and relations with the broadly understood American society, starting from the outbreak of World War 2 in Poland in September, 1939, and ending with the highlights of the 21st-century developments. It depicts Polish Americans’ transition from a ‘minority’ through ‘ethnic’ group to Americans who take pride in their symbolic ethnicity, maintained intentionally and manifested occasionally. This volume will be of great value to students and scholars alike interested in Polish and American History and Social and Cultural History.

The Polish American community has long been identified with three characteristics that the early immigrants brought with them to America, writes Pula: "an affection and concern for their ancestral homeland, a deep religious faith, and a sense of shared cultural values." Prominent among these values are family loyalty, a desire for property ownership, and pride in self-sufficiency.