Polish Americans in California 1827-1977 and Who's Who.
Edited by Jacek Przygoda. Los Angeles: Polish American Historical Association
California Chapter, 1978. Illustrations. Partial Index. 372 pages. $12.00.
Reviewed by Daniel E. Weinberg, Associate Professor of
History, San Diego State University, editor of Ethnicity: A Conceptual
Approach (1976) and author of several articles concerned with immigration
and ethnic history in the United States.
This compilation is a product of the Los Angeles Polish
American Committee for the Bicentennial's interest to make its participation in
the 1976 celebration more than a transitory experience. Approximately 600
persons are identified in the text. A short section on Polish place names in
California and a valuable directory of Polish organizations are also included.
Despite its title, the emphasis of the history and biography are 20th Century.
A mere 14 individuals and 18 pages are concerned with Polish American and Polish
Californian experiences before 1900.
The historical overviews are the weakest parts in the
compilation. More than their simplistic and grossly general character, they are
flawed by the writers' fileopietism. Understanding Polish history, whether
concerned with the United States or Poland, is not assisted by an explanation
that depicts causation as an "inner command that induces every sensitive Pole to
stand faithfully in the defense of. . ,liberty. . . "(p. 11); or reduces the
"Polish personality" to "two principal traits. . . [of] fierce love of freedon
[and] a strong, strong religious faith" (p. 25). Sweeping judgments without data
or analysis to support them compromise the text equally. The editor was remiss
for allowing exaggerated assertions such as: "The history of Poles in California
in the 1840s and 1850s and their contributions to the development and growth of
this country is quite different from that of any other ethnic group that arrived
here during the same period from states East [sic] of the Mississippi" (p. 34).
The contribution of this book is its additions to our knowledge about
specific Poles and Polish Americans. Perhaps as much as 80-85% of the individuals
identified in the 20th Century section are not to be found elsewhere. Nine of
the 14 persons considered in the pre-1900 section are easily found in other,
earlier collections. Readers should be alerted, however, that the book is more a
biographical directory than "Who's Who," and that both the extended biography
section and the alphabetized biographical list have pronounced biases. In the
former, 33 of the approximately 75 people included,
or 44%, were either authors, musicians, artists or actors. (A total of 35
different occupations were identified in this section.) In the alphabetized
list, 57% of the entries (138 of 241 people) claim professional association with
but 10 of the 81 occupational categories: writer, educator, clergy, architect,
engineer, student, librarian, physician, businessman, artist. Such information
is worthwhile; the selectivity should have been noted as it makes a difference
in the utility of the book. In addition, the editor could have assisted the
reader enormously had he presented some context for the occupational pursuits.
How do those included in the book, as well as the occupational emphases, compare
to Poles in the United States, West? How many of the people are first, second,
third generation immigrants, and how do occupations correlate with time resident
in the United States and in California?
Poles in San Diego are noted occassionally in the book, and a four
page description is presented in the section on Polish
organizations. For someone interested in learning about local Polish history,
good leads can be found. Historians and others depend upon biographical
information for their work. "Who's Who," biographical dictionaries, etc. perform
a necessary service, and when they provide access to people typically ignored by
standard collections their value is even greater. Reverend Przygoda and the
others who prepared this book have made a useful beginning. Hopefully, future
editions will expand the entries, enlarge the occupational spectrum and save
whatever group glorification the compilers feel must be included for the preface.
