How did working-class immigrants from Poland create new communities in Chicago during the industrial age? This book explores the lives of immigrants in two iconic South Side Polish neighborhoods—the Back of the Yards and South Chicago—and the stockyards and steel mills in which they made their living. Pacyga shows how Poles forged communities on the South Side in an attempt to preserve the customs of their homeland; how through the development of churches; the building of schools; the founding of street gangs; and the opening of saloons they tried to recreate the feel of an Eastern European village. Through such institutions; Poles also were able to preserve their folk beliefs and family customs. But in time; the economic hardships of industrialization forced Poles to reach out to their non-Polish neighbors. And this led; in large part; to the organization of labor unions in Chicago's steel and meatpacking industries.
#318448 in Books University Of Chicago Press 2011-11-30 2010-05-30Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.00 x 1.10 x 6.00l; 1.00 #File Name: 0226453871352 pages
Review
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Writers of the impossible and its emerging possibilities.By Ubaldo Morales-RamosJeffrey J Kripal brings the metaphorical impossible into the field of consciousness and theoretically completes an important imaginal gnostic circle. He takes thought back closer to its root home of religion; not by way of institutionalized religious dogma or belief but by way of comparative religion.Suddenly comparative religion has taken over psychology as gateway field mapping the imaginal. The imaginal has flown away from Hillman's Mediterranean/California Pacifica's grip; landing in mid-southwestern New Mexico's surrounding regions with its intellectual core at Rice University in Houston.Metaphors of the unknown; the impossible paradoxically makes presence into the real inexplicably; moving along history by way of cultural variations of itself. "As if" cultural similes to which we are contributors. We are writers of the fantastic impossible and its emerging possibilities. Kripal brings this notion into the field of religion; specifically comparative religion; extraterrestrials included.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. The Universe is Shaped by the Imagination?By A.LutherThis book is for those who feel yearn for a view of nature and reality that embraces "the fantastic." The Fantastic are those events that occur in the world which are deeply meaningful - or sometimes just absurd to the rational mind - and are also not explicable or reducible to the materialistic paradigm of science. Kripal argues however; that the Fantastic is also not strictly reducible to a religious account. Kripal sees the Fantastic as being more explicable to art; writing and creativity in general; since the Fantastic occurs when the objective world reflects or resonates with our own cultural creations and our own creative ways of seeing or imagining the world. Kripal focuses on four "authors of the impossible" to make his argument - Frederick Myers; one the early pioneers of psychical research; Charles Fort; another pioneer; who liked to investigate recordings of strange; unusual; sometimes seemingly impossible events; Jaques Vallee; a French polymath who has written extensively on UFOs and describes UFO events as a phenomenon that is neither purely subjective - they are not fake accounts or mere hallucinations - nor are they purely objective in the sense that UFOs are not simply alien astronauts from outer space in flying machines. Kripal's final "author of the impossible" is Bertrand Meheust; a contemporary associate of Vallee's who argues that the actual world - both psychological and physical - is determined by the social and cultural practices and paradigms within which we try to understand it. Kripal contends that all four men understand humanity to be dualistic in that we are connected to the world in both an everyday; mundane; physical level and also on a higher; spiritual level where we are connected to a greater cosmic mind or minds. Through this cosmic connection we can not only manifest amazing abilities such as psychic powers but even alter the nature of our own reality. Many may be sceptical about Kripal's picture of consciousness and the world; but no one could blame him for making it boring.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Kripal is the Man of the HourBy Kathlena F. MaillouxMr. Kripal has certainly set my mind on fire. After reading his "Super Natural" I had to continue that train of thought. Awesome research. I highly respect your works.
