Slovak Pittsburgh
Slovak Pittsburgh

Author: Lisa A. Alzo

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 132

ISBN-13: 9780738549088

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No other city in the United States is home to more Slovaks than Pittsburgh. It is estimated that close to 100,000 Slovak immigrants came to the area in the 1890s looking for work and the chance for a better life. The hills and valleys of this new land reminded newcomers of the farms, forests, and mountains they left behind. They lived in neighborhoods close to their work, forming numerous cluster communities in such places as Braddock, Duquesne, Homestead, Munhall, the North Side, Rankin, and Swissvale. Once settled, Slovak immigrants founded their own churches, schools, fraternal benefit societies, and social clubs. Many of these organizations still enjoy an active presence in Pittsburgh today, serving to pass on the customs and traditions of the Slovak people. Through nearly 200 photographs, Slovak Pittsburgh celebrates the lives of those Slovaks who settled in Pittsburgh and western Pennsylvania, and the rich heritage that is their legacy.

Out of This Furnace
Out of This Furnace

Author: Thomas Bell

Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press

Published: 2013-02-07

Total Pages: 434

ISBN-13: 0822978865

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Our all-time bestselling title, this classic and powerful novel spanning three generations of a Slovak immigrant family has been adopted for course use in more than 250 colleges and universities nationwide. Out of This Furnace, is Thomas Bell's most compelling achievement. Its story of three generations of an immigrant Slovak family - the Dobrejcaks - still stands as a fresh and extraordinary accomplishment. The novel begins in the mid-1880s with the naive blundering career of Djuro Kracha. It tracks his arrival from the old country as he walked from New York to White Haven, his later migration to the steel mills of Braddock, and his eventual downfall through foolish financial speculations and an extramarital affair. The second generation is represented by Kracha's daughter, Mary, who married Mike Dobrejcak, a steel worker. Their decent lives, made desperate by the inhuman working conditions of the mills, were held together by the warm bonds of their family life, and Mike's political idealism set an example for the children. Dobie Dobrejcak, the third generation, came of age in the 1920s determined not to be sacrificed to the mills. His involvement in the successful unionization of the steel industry climaxed a half-century struggle to establish economic justice for the workers. Out of This Furnace is a document of ethnic heritage and of a violent and cruel period in our history, but it is also a superb story. The writing is strong and forthright, and the novel builds constantly to its triumphantly human conclusion.

At the Price of the Republic
At the Price of the Republic

Author: James Ramon Felak

Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Pre

Published: 2010-11-23

Total Pages: 281

ISBN-13: 0822976943

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Slovak nationalist sentiment has been a constant presence in the history of Czechoslovakia, coming to head in the torrent of nationalism that resulted in the dissolution of the Republic on January 1, 1993. James Felak examines a parallel episode in the 1930s with Slovak nationalists achieved autonomy for Slovakia-but "at the price" of the loss of East Central Europe's only parliamentary democracy and the strengthening of Nazi power. The tensions between Czechs and Slovaks date back to the creation of Czechoslovakia in 1918. Slovaks, who differed sharply in political tradition, social and economic development, and culture, and resented being governed by a centralized administration run from the Czech capital of Prague, formed the Slovak People's Party, led by Roman Catholic priest Ankrej Hlinka. Drawing heavily on Czech and Slovak archives, Felak provides a balanced history of the party, offering unprecedented insight into intraparty factionalism and behind-the-scenes maneuvering surrounding SSP's policy decisions.James R. Felak is associate professor of history at the University of Washington.

After Hitler, Before Stalin
After Hitler, Before Stalin

Author: James Ramon Felak

Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Pre

Published: 2009-07-16

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13: 0822971224

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After Hitler, Before Stalin examines the crucial postwar period in Slovakia, following Nazi occupation and ending with the Communist coup of February1948. Centering his work around the major political role of the Catholic Church and its leaders, James Ramon Felak offers a fascinating study of the interrelationship of Slovak Catholics, Democrats, and Communists. He provides an in-depth examination of Communist policies toward Catholics and their strategies to court Catholic voters, and he chronicles the variety of political stances Catholics maintained during Slovakia's political turmoil. Felak opens by providing a background on pre-war and wartime Slovak politics, notably the rise of Slovak Catholic nationalism and Slovakia's alignment with Nazi Germany during World War II. He then describes the union formed in the famed "April Agreement" of 1946 between the Democratic Party and Catholics that guaranteed a landslide victory for the Democrats and insured a position for Catholics in the new regime. Felak views other major political events of the period, including: the 1947 Czechoslovak war crimes trial of Father Jozef Tiso; education policy; the treatment of the Hungarian minority; the trumped-up "anti-state conspiracy" movement led by police in the Fall of 1947; and the subsequent Communist putsch. Through extensive research in Slovak national archives, including those of the Democratic and Communist parties, After Hitler, Before Stalin assembles a comprehensive study of the predominant political forces and events of this tumultuous period and the complex motivations behind them.

The Czech and Slovak Experience
The Czech and Slovak Experience

Author: John Morison

Publisher: Springer

Published: 1992-11-12

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13: 1349222410

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The Czech and Slovak Experience assembles essays by leading specialists from the USA, Canada, Britain and Czechoslovakia on key aspects of modern Czech and Slovak history: Joseph II's contribution to the development of the Czech national movement, the troubled relationship between Czechs and Slovaks as seen through Czech and Slovak eyes, Slovak linguistic separatism, the emergence of political democracy in post-Versailles Czechoslovakia, Masaryk as a religious heretic, Czechoslovakia's Germans and their treatment by the Czechoslovak government, and Prague's Jewish community after 1918.

City At The Point
City At The Point

Author: Samuel P. Hays

Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Pre

Published: 1991-03-04

Total Pages: 504

ISBN-13: 9780822954477

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An overview of scholarly research, both published and previously unpublished, on the history of a city that has often served as a case study for measuring social change. It synthesizes the literature and assesses how that knowledge relates to our broader understanding of the processes of urbanization and urbanism. This book is especially useful for undergraduate and graduate courses on environmental politics and policy making, or as a supplement for courses on public policy making generally.

OSS Foreign Nationalities Branch Files, 1942-1945
OSS Foreign Nationalities Branch Files, 1942-1945

Author: United States. Office of Strategic Services. Foreign Nationalities Branch

Publisher:

Published: 1988

Total Pages: 458

ISBN-13:

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Documents consist of departmental memos and reports, correspondence with individuals, and press clippings and press reports which deal with American Jewish groups during 1942-1945, as well as issues relating to Palestine, Jews and Jewish refugees during World War II.

The Czech and Slovak Legion in Siberia, 1917-1922
The Czech and Slovak Legion in Siberia, 1917-1922

Author: Joan McGuire Mohr

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2014-01-10

Total Pages: 263

ISBN-13: 0786488514

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During World War I, a specialized Russian battalion comprised of ethnic Czechs and Czech and Slovak prisoners of war--the Legion--became a pawn in an international game of power and deceit. The Legion's detour through Siberia became the greatest human interest story of the war, chronicled weekly in the New York Times and New York Herald. More than half of the Legion's troops lost their lives as the evacuation of Czech and Slovak POWs through Vladivostok precipitated the murder of the Russian royal family and forced the Legion to act as protectors of the Russian treasury and the Trans-Siberian Railway while the White and Red armies battled. For political purposes, tales of the Legion's odyssey have been buried or expunged. This volume offers the seminal account of this hidden yet epic journey, shedding light on a fascinating but forgotten facet of World War I.