Eagle and the Cross : A History of the Polish Roman Catholic Union of America, 1873-2000

The Polish Roman Catholic Union of America (PRCUA) is the oldest Polish organization in the United States. At a time when many Polish Americans were disenchanted with the Irish-dominated American Catholic hierarchy, the PRCUA was a bastion of loyalty to the Church and was America's largest Polish-Catholic loyalist organization.Drawing on a tradition of Catholic positivism, the PRCUA dedicated itself to work on behalf of impoverished immigrants, caring for their physical, moral, educational, and social needs within the framework of the local parish-community.The Eagle and the Crossis the first comprehensive, English-language history of this important and often overlooked fraternal organization. Lavishly illustrated, the book tells the story of the men and women, laity and clergy, who built and sustained the PRCUA from 1873 to today. It restores this key organization to its rightful place in the history of Polish Americans and reaffirms the central role of Catholicism in the history and culture of this important ethnic group.

John Radzilowski is the author or co-author of half a dozen books and over a hundred articles on a wide variety of topics. He received his BA in 1989 from Southwest State University (Marshall, Minn.) and his Ph.D. in history in 1999 from Arizona State University. He has written extensively on the history of Polish Americans: on their rural communities, on organizational life, on crime and the underworld, on Polish Americans in World War II, and on the role of Catholicism and parishes. He has also written on the history of many other immigrant groups, on the history of Poland and east-central Europe, on the history of the state of Minnesota, on the problems and history of rural Midwestern communities, and on military history. He lives in Minnesota