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Author Blank, Joshua C., 1984- author.

Title Creating Kashubia : history, memory, and identity in Canada's first Polish community / Joshua C. Blank
Published Montreal ; Kingston ; London ; Chicago : McGill-Queen's University Press, 2016

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Description 1 online resource
Series McGill-Queen's studies in ethnic history. Series two ; 38
McGill-Queen's studies in ethnic history. Series two ; 38
Contents Part I Revisiting Historical Memory. 1 The Production of Knowledge and Canada's First Polish Community -- Poverty, Piety, and Political Persecution -- Migration Memories -- Intending Settlers: T.P. French and His Guidebook -- Poor Land and Victorian Science
Part II Cultural Redefinition. The Origins and Development of the Kashubian Label -- Legacies of Promotion: Cultural Redefinition and the Wilno Heritage Society -- Epilogue -- Appendix: Emigrants from Prussian-Occupied Poland Who Settled on the Opeongo and Surrounding Townships
Summary "In recent years, over one million Canadians have claimed Polish heritage - a significant population increase since the first group of Poles came from Prussian-occupied Poland and settled in Wilno, Ontario, west of Ottawa in 1858. For over a century, descendants from this community thought of themselves as Polish, but this began to change in the 1980s due to the work of a descendant priest who emphasized the community's origins in Poland's Kashubia region. What resulted was the reinvention of ethnicity concurrent with a similar movement in northern Poland. Creating Kashubia chronicles more than one hundred and fifty years of history, identity, and memory and challenges the historiography of migration and settlement in the region. For decades, authors from outside Wilno, as well as community insiders, have written histories without using the other's stores of knowledge. Joshua Blank combines primary archival material and oral history with national narratives and a rich secondary literature to reimagine the period. He examines the socio-political and religious forces in Prussia, delves into the world of emigrant recruitment, and analyzes the trans-Atlantic voyage. In doing so, Blank challenges old narratives and traces the refashioning of the community's ethnic identity from Polish to Kashubian. An illuminating study, Creating Kashubia shows how changing identities and the politics of ethnic memory are locally situated yet transnationally influenced."--Publisher's description
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Subject Kashubes -- Ontario -- Renfrew (County) -- History
Kashubes -- Ontario -- Renfrew (County) -- Ethnic identity
HISTORY -- Canada -- Post-Confederation (1867- )
HISTORY -- Canada -- General.
Kashubes
Ontario -- Renfrew (County)
Genre/Form Electronic books
History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780773598515
0773598510
9780773598652
0773598650
9780773547193
0773547193
9780773547209
0773547207