This book traces the development of a Lithuanian sense of peoplehood and unravels their invisible configuration of values. By analyzing the dynamics of their diaspora mentality, the work presents a picture of a people armed with an ideology that enables them to nonviolently confront the first principles of American nationality. Contents: Old World Roots; Emergence of a Lithuanian Community in Chicago; A New Wave of Emigration in the Making; Exiles Not Immigrants; Establishment of Institutions to Deflect Assimilation; A Catholic Identity; Lithuanian Involvement in Organized Political Action.

Diasporas are nodes of cultural exchange, connecting different systems of values, beliefs, and social organization. Throughout history and the present, diasporas have provided important contributions to economies, politics, and culture, both for the home countries and for societies of residence. This book contains case studies from different disciplines, exploring diaspora as a resource, both on collective and on individual levels. Common themes are the structure and use of diaspora networks, as well as relations between different diasporas, ranging from co-existence to competition or strategic co-operation, and the complex interdependence between diaspora and urbanity. (Series: Freiburg Studies in Social Anthropology / Freiburger Sozialanthropologische Studien / Etudes d'Anthropologie Sociale de l'Universite de Fribourg - Vol. 36)

In 1990, the tiny Soviet Republic of Lithuania declared independence and began restoring the mechanisms of independent government and democracy that had been suppressed by its Soviet invaders for half a century. Lithuania examines the first years of this rebirth in the face of the legacy of the Soviet occupation. In addition to chronicling the lively chain of events leading to and stemming from the declaration of independence, Alexandra Ashbourne studies the essential components of rebirth: the creation of domestic, foreign, and security policies and the revitalization of an independent economy. Drawing from the personal testimony of Lithuanians closely connected to these events, Ashbourne appraises Lithuania's attempts to rejoin the international community and acquire an effective security guarantee. She concludes that the damage caused by fifty years of Soviet domination created obstacles to the process of rebirth, obstacles that are proving difficult and even impossible to overcome. Readers of Lithuania will find its discussions applicable to most former Soviet republics and Eastern Bloc states. The book will be invaluable to students and scholars of Lithuania, Soviet history, and international political policy.

This volume is the result of an international research project that drew together perspectives from three countries in Central, Eastern, and South-Eastern Europe: Croatia, Lithuania, and Poland. It explores the under-researched phenomenon of immaterial values and resources that returning migrants bring with them, as they have the potential to contribute to economic development, together with the social, political, and cultural change in their countries of origin. The authors explore the mechanisms, challenges, and successes of the process of social remitting by returnees to these countries.

Now that nearly twenty years have passed since the collapse of the Soviet bloc there is a need to understand what has taken place since that historic date and where we are at the moment. Bringing together authors with different historical, cultural, regional and theoretical backgrounds, this volume engages in debates that address new questions arising from recent developments, such as whether there is a need to reject or uphold the notion of post-socialism as both a necessary and valid concept ignoring changes and differences across both time and space. The authors' firsthand ethnographies from their own countries belie such a simplistic notion, revealing, as they do, the cultural, social, and historical diversity of countries of Central and Southeastern Europe.

Population Displacement in Lithuania in the XXth Century: Experiences, Identities and Legacies is an edited volume written by historians from several countries offering a series of ground-breaking case studies on forced migration in Lithuania during and between the two World Wars. Starting with the premise that the mass movement of peoples during and after the Second World War needs to be understood in relation to the population displacement of the First World War, the authors draw on theoretical perspectives ranging from entangled histories, cultural theory and studies of nationalism to trace the ethnic, social and cultural transformation of Lithuanian society caused by the displacement of Lithuanians, Poles, Jews and Germans. Contributors are: Tomas Balkelis, Daiva Dapkutė, Violeta Davoliūtė, Andrea Griffante, Ruth Leiserowitz, Klaus Richter, Vasilijus Safronovas, Vitalija Stravinskienė, Arūnas Streikus and Theodore R. Weeks.