Product Details
Poles in Minnesota (People Of Minnesota)

Poles in Minnesota (People Of Minnesota)
By John Radzilowski

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Product Description

Polish Americans have been part of Minnesota history since before the state's founding. Taking up farms along newly laid rail networks, Polish immigrants fanned across the countryside in small but important concentrations. In cities like Winona and St. Paul, Northeast Minneapolis and Duluth, as well as on the Iron Range, Polish American workers helped drive a growing industrial and agricultural economy--and established their own cultural identity within the state. Polish Americans, many of them political refugees, created and sustained a wide range of community institutions from churches and schools to cultural groups and social clubs in Minnesota. They developed a significant literary tradition, published newspapers, and were instrumental in establishing the state's early labor movement. Author John Radzilowski tells the stories of individuals like Stan Wasie, a Polish immigrant boy who grew up to become a pioneer in the trucking industry, founding Merchants Motor Freight in Northeast Minneapolis in 1927. By the 1950s the successful company had 800 vehicles and its own terminals.

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #1682805 in Books
  • Published on: 2005-02-15
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 112 pages

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John Radzilowski is a senior fellow at Piast Institute: A National Center for Polish and Polish American Affairs and president of the Polish American Cultural Institute of Minnesota. He lives in St. Louis Park, Minnesota.

Customer Reviews

WONDERFUL AND COMPACT4
"I wrote you a long letter because I didn't have time for a short one," runs the old saw. Writing concisely is hard: which is what makes this book SO successful. To pack the history of Minnesota Polonia into 100 pages, with interesting sidebars, solid research, and a fair presentation of both its urban (Minneapolis, Duluth) and rural (who knew there were lots of Polish colonies along the Minnesota-Canadian border?) takes great skill. Radzilowski is a wonderful writer. Strongly recommended.

A concise and pleasant overview4
John Radzilowski gives a terse and informative overview of the history of Poles in Minnesota. In just 78 photograph-laden pages (not counting appendices) he covers the various waves of immigration and the different Polish communities throughout Minnesota. Discussion of second and third-generation Polish-Americans is especially thorough, but most topics receive adequate coverage. This book frequently relies on Dr. Radzilowski's earlier research, but the end result is a nice, readable synopsis.