'DON'T BE MUTE!' THE CULTURE OF LETTER-WRITING TO THE PRESS AMONG POLISH IMMIGRANTS IN AMERICA

Polish immigrants arrived in the United States familiar with the culture of public letter-writing to the press, in which they participated through the periodicals for peasants circulating in the Polish countryside at the turn of the twentieth century. The article analyses public letters published in over thirty Polish-language newspapers printed in the United States between 1880s and 1960s, and demonstrates that the editors used them to support important functions of the ethnic press: creation of a national as well as diasporic immigrant community; formation of readers' networks loyal to particular newspapers; and adoption of personal service journalism, which guided the immigrants in their adaptation in the new country. The immigrants who arrived in subsequent decades continued the practice of letter-writing to the press, strengthening and expanding it to include the entire Polish Diaspora.