BOOK NOTES: A multicultural portrait of Chicago (05/19/96)

BOOK NOTES

A multicultural portrait of Chicago

JERSEY CITY, N.J. - The latest edition of "Ethnic Chicago, A Multicultural Portrait," is a kaleidoscope of the development of 16 ethnic communities that have contributed to the make-up of contemporary Chicago. Edited by Melvin G. Holli and Peter d'A. Jones, the book explains Chicago from the perspective of the United States as a "melting pot of nations," a phrase popularized by Israel Zangwill in his 1908 melodrama "The Melting Pot."

Today, as Messrs. Holli and Jones point out in their introduction, that concept is being displaced by multiculturalism, which is concerned with the retention of ethnic cultural identities, institutions and traditions. For the groups described in this book it is a central tenet of their continued existence as individual communities.

One chapter is a segment on Ukrainian Americans, written by lifelong Chi-towner, Dr. Myron Kuropas. The former White House ethnic advisor to President Gerald Ford and a longtime activist of the Ukrainian National Association gives a certain expertise to the history of Ukrainians in his hometown.

Whereas many of the other authors describe the development of their communities within a framework of Chicago set apart from the greater community development in the United States, Dr. Kuropas describes the development of Ukrainian life in the United States within the microcosm of the Chicago "hromada."

He explains that the Church was a focal point of community life (as with most of these ethnic groups) and has played a key role in developing the institutions still central to community life in the United States today.

He describes the political factions that formed in the Ukrainian American community after Ukraine's brief fling with independence in 1918-1920, ending with Bolshevik victory, and how political life always developed with one eye toward Ukraine. As the editors of the book write in the introduction, "Following a time-tested pattern that Poles, Bohemians and others had employed during World War I, Ukrainians tried to use the United States as a base for launching an independent state of Ukraine in the Soviet Union."

The chapter also touches on the attempts by some in the U.S. to paint Ukrainians as Nazi sympathizers and supporters, and how the community fought the allegations.

Dr. Kuropas writes of the various Ukrainian churches in Chicago and the neighborhoods that developed around them; of the Ukrainian Sich, the athletic, and later, quasi-military club that was so popular in the first part of the century; of Ukrainian Bolsheviks and the "Red Riot" between Communists and Sich members in 1933, in which some 3,000 Ukrainians marched in Chicago to protest the Soviet-induced famine, and along the way were attacked by Communists wielding rocks, brass knuckles and pipes. The next day the Chicago Tribune's headline stated, "100 Hurt in W. Side Riot."

He also notes two high points in the life of Chicago's Ukrainian community. First, the 1918 Pulaski Park rally, where more than 10,000 Ukrainians and supporters gathered on May 30 to protest German aggression, and World War I.

As the author writes, "No Ukrainian gatherings before and few after have been as successful, both in terms of the number of Ukrainians involved and the unifying spirit that prevailed."

A second watershed was the Ukrainian American effort at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair, where the community organized a Ukrainian pavilion that attracted 1.8 million visitors.

The chapter, which is filled with photographs of early and contemporary Ukrainian life in Chicago, ends in 1989 with a description of Ukrainian American financial institutions in Chicago.

The book is unique not only because it gives an ethno-quilted look at the development of Chicago but because it presents it in unusual fashion. Later chapters are devoted to social institutions important to the development of the city. It becomes "Ethnic Church," "The Ethnic Saloon," "Ethnic Crime," and even "Ethnic Cemeteries."

Both editors are professors of history at the University of Chicago at Illinois. Prof. Holli has previously written about two past Chicago mayors, Richard Daley and Harold Washington. Prof. Jones has authored books on Christopher Columbus, Henry George and American consumerism.

"Ethnic Chicago: A Multicultural Portrait," has received numerous awards, including the Society of Midland Authors Award, the Illinois Political Science Award and the Illinois State Historical Museum Award of Merit. The 656-page book, first published in 1981, revised in 1984, and now in its newest edition with this 1995 release, may be ordered for $29.99 from Wm. B. Eerdsmans Publishing Co., 255 Jefferson Ave., SE., Grand Rapids, MI 49503, or by calling (800) 253-7521; or faxing (616) 459-6540.

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