The Polish Hearst
About the Book
Arriving in the U.S. in 1883, Antoni A. Paryski climbed from typesetter to newspaper publisher in Toledo, Ohio. His weekly Ameryka-Echo became a defining publication in the international Polish diaspora and its much-read letters section a public sphere for immigrants to come together as a community to discuss issues in their own language.Anna D. Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann mines seven decades' worth of thoughts expressed by Ameryka-Echo readers to chronicle the ethnic press's role in the immigrant experience. Open and unedited debate harkened back to homegrown journalistic traditions, and Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann opens up the nuances of an editorial philosophy that cultivated readers as content creators. As she shows, ethnic publications in the process forged immigrant social networks and pushed notions of education and self-improvement throughout Polonia. Paryski, meanwhile, built a publishing empire that earned him the nickname "The Polish Hearst."
Detailed and incisive, The Polish Hearst opens the door on the long-overlooked world of ethnic publishing and the amazing life of one of its towering figures.
About the Author
Anna D. Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann is Distinguished Professor of History at Eastern Connecticut State University and author of The Exile Mission: The Polish Political Diaspora and Polish Americans, 1939-1956.Reviews
"Recommended."--Choice"The Polish Hearst tells a compelling story that fills a void in the record of Antoni Paryski's contributions to the history of America's immigrant newspapers and augments the historiography of the American media to account for the contributions of the professional journalists and the readers-writers of the ethnic press as well."--Ohio Valley History
"A superbly framed and detailed analysis of an influential crossover newspaper. . . . In The Polish Hearst, Jaroszynska-Kirchmann exposes the fascinating, interconnected layers of ethnic history through Ameryka-Echo's multi-voiced record."--Polish American Studies
"An important and groundbreaking work." --Journal of American Ethnic History
Blurbs
"Who says creating a virtual community based on sharing information across space is new? Anna D. Jaroszy?ska-Kirchmann’s insightful study of Antoni Paryski, aka the Polish Hearst, the ethnic newspaper Ameryka-Echo, and the reader-writers who contributed to that Polish American paper, broadens our understanding of the letters of mobile people and how they created an ethnic public sphere."--Suzanne M. Sinke, author of Dutch Immigrant Women in the United States, 1880-1920
"The author has done an uncommon job in thoroughly analyzing a significant ethnic newspaper and inserting it into the mainstream of contemporary print culture studies. The role of readers as authors is examined in detail and shows how very much more there is to be done with ethnic print, which has played too little a part in scholarship to date."--James P. Danky, author of The German-American Radical Press: The Shaping of Political Culture, 1850–1940
"In relating this resonant, deeply researched and broadly conceived story of Antoni Paryski, the classically self-made Polish American publisher, the author provides important insights into ethnicity, the hard-won American identities of the immigrants and their children, and the nature of community in modern, culturally diverse societies."--David A. Gerber, University at Buffalo Distinguished Professor of History
"Well-written and broadly contextualized, this study about a key Polish American immigrant newspaper serves as an excellent starting point for anybody interested in the history of Polish Americans and the immigrant press in the United States during the twentieth century. Jaroszy?ska-Kirchmann opens a fresh perspective on the transformation of Polish America between the period of mass immigration around 1900 and the decline of ethnic life in recent decades."--Tobias Brinkmann, author of Sundays at Sinai: A Jewish Congregation in Chicago
"Does an admirable job in placing Antoni A. Paryski, the Ameryka-Echo, and his book publishing business firmly in the history not only of the Polish immigrant community, but within the historical context of Polish history, particularly the Positivist movement, and the history of journalism."--Dominic A. Pacyga, author of Polish Immigrants and Industrial Chicago: Workers on the South Side, 1880–1922
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