East Central Europe in Exile Volume 2: Transatlantic Identities

The East Central Europe in Exile series consists of two volumes which contain chapters written by both esteemed and renowned scholars, as well as young, aspiring researchers whose work brings a fresh, innovative approach to the study of migration. Altogether, there are thirty-eight chapters in both volumes focusing on the East Central European émigré experience in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The first volume, Transatlantic Migrations, focuses on the reasons for emigration from the lands of East Central Europe; from the Baltic to the Adriatic, the intercontinental journey, as well as on the initial adaptation and assimilation processes.

The second volume is slightly different in scope, for it focuses on the aspect of negotiating new identities acquired in the adopted homeland. The authors contributing to Transatlantic Identities focus on the preservation of the East Central European identity, maintenance of contacts with the “old country”, and activities pursued on behalf of, and for the sake of, the abandoned homeland. Combined, both volumes describe the transnational processes affecting East Central European migrants.

Dr. Anna Mazurkiewicz is a Historian at the University of Gdańsk, Poland. She is the Second Vice-President of the Polish American Historical Association.

“In this fascinating and enlightening volume, eighteen distinguished scholars from eight countries explore various aspects of the challenges faced by East Central European emigrants in adjustment to life abroad, both to maintain their native identities, and form new ones. Readers will be impressed by the insight and originality of the authors, as well as the fruitfully transnational scope of their collective scholarship.”
– Prof. Neal Pease, Department of History, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

“… We have received an impressive book on the exile issue consisting of dense texts with many previously unknown details as well as profound deliberations on problems like ethnic literature in America, the processes of ‘transculturation’, the criteria of such constructs as ‘Polishness’, the cooperation as well as the conflict and prejudice between different ethnic groups. We are given to follow the fate of writers, poets and politicians, born as Czechs, Croats, Estonians, Germans, Hungarians, Poles and others. Allowed the great opportunity to rethink the question of their identity, their lot and their lost chances, we observe their life in several countries of settlement. And from a different perspective, we can follow the actions conducted by special services from the countries of origin. … A well selected collection of authors with expertise in the field guarantees the high level of this unique collection, indispensable for a better understanding of the complex past of the 19th and 20th Centuries.”
– Dr. Sławomir Łukasiewicz, Institute of National Remembrance and the Catholic University of Lublin, Poland

Thomas J Napierkowski

Magdolna Baráth

Piotr Derengowski

Pauli Heikkilä

Arkadiusz Indraszczyk

Anna D. Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann

Piotr Koprowski

Grażyna J. Kozaczka

Stephen M. Leahy

Katalin Kádár Lynn

Anna Mazurkiewicz

Martin Nekola