Ferocious Enemies and Noble Heroes: Images of “Us” and “Them” in Polish American Textbooks (until the 1930s)
Ferocious Enemies and Noble Heroes: Images of “Us” and “Them” in Polish American Textbooks (until the 1930s)

Summary/Abstract: Ethnic schools had an important role to play in propagating profiles of “ideal” heroes and members of society among immigrant communities. Consequently, it was often the role of school coursebooks to inform pupils of the messages adults wanted to transmit to the younger generation. In this paper the author attempts to describe contents of various textbooks used in Polish-American parochial schools. Invention of national mythology and simplification of facts was necessary to facilitate the memorizing process as required. But to form group solidarity one also had to identify common enemies. Various textbooks published in the U.S.A. before World War I did not help immigrants’ children to acculturate to their American realities. Being very didactic, they focused mainly on Polish realities and Polish history.

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