Balkan Minds: Transnational Nationalism and the Transformation of South Slavic Immigrant Identity in Chicago, 1890-1941 Dejan Kralj Loyola University Chicago
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Loyola University Chicago Loyola eCommons Dissertations (1 year embargo) 2012 Balkan Minds: Transnational Nationalism and the Transformation of South Slavic Immigrant Identity in Chicago, 1890-1941 Dejan Kralj Loyola University Chicago Recommended Citation Kralj, Dejan, "Balkan Minds: Transnational Nationalism and the Transformation of South Slavic Immigrant Identity in Chicago, 1890-1941" (2012). Dissertations (1 year embargo). Paper 4. http://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss_1yr/4 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations (1 year embargo) by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Copyright © 2012 Dejan Kralj LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO BALKAN MINDS: TRANSNATIONAL NATIONALISM & THE TRANSFORMATION OF SOUTH SLAVIC IMMIGRANT IDENTITY IN CHICAGO, 1890-1941 A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY PROGRAM IN HISTORY BY DEJAN KRALJ CHICAGO, ILLINOIS MAY 2012 Copyright by Dejan Kralj, 2012 All rights reserved. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It is quite a difficult task to thank everyone that has helped me throughout this epic scholarly journey. However, many deserve recognition for the roles they played guiding me through to the end of my graduate career. Foremost in mind, I must thank Lillian Hardison, the heart and soul of the history graduate department at Loyola. Your support and friendship have meant the world to me and countless other graduate students that have made their way through the program. You have made a lasting impression on all of our lives and we are eternally grateful. I most indebted to Timothy J. Gilfoyle, my dissertation chair and the members of my committee, Harold L. Platt, Susan E. Hirsch, and Edin Hajdarpasić. Your collective wisdom, thorough analyses, and exacting critiques have greatly improved the quality and scope of my work. I am confident that your time and effort will not prove fruitless. More importantly, your friendship and support during the months leading up to my defense have meant more than you can imagine. I thank you all. In addition, faculty members Lewis Erenberg, William Galush—whose seminar course gave rise to my dissertation topic—Suzanne Kaufman, Michael Khodarovsky, and Anthony Cardoza have all contributed to my growth and development as a scholar. I also must thank Robert O. Bucholz, who has served both directly and indirectly as my teaching mentor throughout my time at Loyola. I am forever in your debt for all of the adroit and judicious wisdom you have freely and tirelessly dispensed throughout the iii years. There is no greater example of that which all teaching historians should aspire to. I also owe a special thanks to my friend, confidant, and fellow traveler, John Donoghue, whose arrival at Loyola could not have been more opportune. I look forward to continuing our endless discussions on all things historical and political in the years to come. I would like to express my gratitude to my fellow graduate students that have inspired, provoked, encouraged, and supported me both in the classroom and during countless pint-filled evenings, waxing philosophic at the back tables of Hamilton’s. I especially want to thank Peter Finocchario, Kevin Kaufman, Cord Scott, and Jen Searcy who all sat alongside me during my first three years of coursework. I also want to thank the members of the dissertation writing group—Kevin Kaufman, Elizabeth Hoffman Ransford, Jason Myers, Adam Shrpintzen, Ron Martin, Thomas Greene, Andrew Donnelly, Daniel O’Gorman, Jillana Ordman, and Maria Reynolds —who ultimately motivated me to finally put pen to paper and complete my dissertation. I also wish to thank the the History Department and the Graduate School for four years of merit award and teaching assistantship funding, and to the Graduate School and the Arthur J. Schmitt Foundation for honoring me with the Schmitt Dissertation Fellowship during the 2007 and 2008 academic year. Finally, I want thank all of my family for respecting my decision to take the road less travelled. Especially to my son Zane, who has spent all of his years watching his father work on a “project with no end” and to my wife Elanor, who has supported all my efforts without question. I would have given up a long time ago were it not for your iv unfailing love and encouragement. You have all given me the strength to endure one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. I am forever grateful. v In loving memory of Branko Šestić and all who still believe in Jugoslavia… Exile is the nursery of nationality…. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii PRONUNCIATION GUIDE x INTRODUCTION: SOUTH SLAVIC IMMIGRANTS IN CHICAGO 1 The South Slavs, Immigration, and National Identity 12 Chapter Outline and Overview 23 CHAPTER ONE: CRUMBLING EMPIRES & ASPIRING NATIONS: THE AWAKENING OF SOUTH SLAVIC NATIONAL IDENTITY, 1804-1882 26 The First and Second Serbian Uprisings, 1804-1817 34 Literature, Politics, and the Rise of the Serbian Nation 43 Illyrianism and the Emergence of Croatian National Consciousness 49 Dueling Nationalisms: Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Illyrians & Jugoslavs 53 The Balkan Crisis and Great Power Politics 65 Conclusion 68 CHAPTER TWO: INDUSTRIAL CITIES & SLAVIC INVASIONS: THE DAWN OF “NEW IMMIGRATION” IN CHICAGO, 1880-1910 71 The Rise of Urban Industrial America 73 “New Immigration,” 1880-1924 75 South Slavic Emigration from Austro-Hungarian Lands 80 South Slav Emigration from Ottoman Lands 85 Return Migration 86 Push-Pull Factors Contributing to South Slavic Immigration 88 South Slavic Immigration to Chicago 96 Employment & Working Conditions 103 Assimilation and Ethnic Maintenance 106 Conclusion 111 CHAPTER THREE: FRATERNAL SOCIETIES & THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE PRESS: SOUTH SLAVIC NATIONALIST MOBILIZATION & AMERICANIZATION IN CHICAGO, 1880-1930 114 Ethnic Organizations 118 Educating the South Slavs 130 Athletic Associations 135 South Slavic Cultural Organizations 138 Junior Affiliates 147 The South Slavic Foreign-Language Press 148 Conclusion 158 viii CHAPTER FOUR: SOCIALISTS, SAINTS & SALOONS: OPPOSITIONAL IDENTITIES, ASSIMILATION, AND ETHNIC MAINTENANCE IN SOUTH SLAVIC CHICAGO, 1900-1930 163 South Slavic Families: Traditional Life, Homeownership, and the Second Generation 171 South Slavic Saloons 179 South Slavic Churches 186 Working-class Socialists & Anti-Immigrant Nativists 196 Conclusion 209 CHAPTER FIVE: HOMELAND CALLING: TRANSNATIONAL NATIONALIST MOBILIZATION AND CONFLICT IN THE BALKANS, 1908-1918 213 The Balkan Wars, 1912-1913 223 The First World War, 1914-1918 232 Conclusion: The End of World War I 254 CHAPTER SIX: SOUTH SLAVIC UNITY & DISARRAY: NATIONAL STRUGGLE IN THE FIRST JUGOSLAVIA, 1918-1941 257 Unity or Disarray 263 The Rise of Croatian Nationalism 269 Jugoslavs in Name Only 271 Jugoslav Day, 1933 276 Death of a King, Birth of a Nation 279 “The Croatians have Spoken” 281 Conclusion: World War II and the End of Jugoslavia 283 CONCLUSION: THE DEATH OF NATION & REBIRTH OF AN IDEA 287 BIBLIOGRAPHY 302 VITA 321 ix PRONUNCIATION GUIDE The language of the former-Yugoslav states of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro once known as Serbo-Croatian or Croato-Serbian is now identified as the individual languages referred to as either Bosnian, Croatian, or Serbian depending on one’s national affiliation. However, the language is commonly referred Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian or BCS. Barring a variety of regional dialectical variations, BCS is a single language written in either Latin or Cyrillic script. The language is determinedly phonetic with each letter representing a singular sound. The stress typically is placed upon the first syllable of each word. C c ts as in tsar Ć ć tj as t in future Č č ch as in church Đ đ j as in james J j y as in yellow Lj lj li as in million. Nj nj ni as in opinion Š š sh as in ship Ž ž zh as s in treasure x INTRODUCTION SOUTH SLAVIC IMMIGRANTS IN CHICAGO As the end of World War I drew near, centuries of east European nationalistic rivalries and hatreds seemed to dissipate as much of Europe’s old imperial order gave way to the rise of new nations. In 1918, Robert Joseph Kerner, an American authority on Jugoslavia optimistically assessed the nationalism of South Slavs in the Balkans, stating that, If there are miracles in history, the Jugo-Slav movement is a miracle…. Religious differences, political rivalries, linguistic quibbles and the petty foibles of centuries appeared to be forgotten in the three short years which elapsed from Kumanovo to the destruction of Serbia in 1915. The Great Serbian idea had really perished in 1915 as had the Great Croatian idea in 1878. In their place emerged Jugo-Slavia… Nationalism had proved stronger than opposing religions, more cohesive than political and economic interests… The Jugo-Slav movement had ended in the formation of a nation which is neither a doctrine nor a dream, but reality.1 For Kerner and other Wilsonian idealists, Jugoslavia represented the culmination of a centuries-long struggle for unification. He believed that South Slavic unity “came first in the imagination and the mind, next in literature and speech, and finally in political action” as the divisions among Croats, Serbs, and Slovenes melted away creating a new national identity: the Jugoslavs.2 1 Robert Joseph Kerner, “The Jugo-Slav Movement” in Alexander Ivanovitch Petrunkevitch and others, The Russian Revolution/The Jugo-Slav Movement (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1918), 81-95. 2 Ibid., 85. 1 2 The rapid spread of industrialization in the nineteenth century unleashed an unprecedented wave of migration across Europe and North America. These forces laid the foundation for a period of unparalleled urbanization and a revolution in transportation technologies that allowed untold masses of Europeans to migrate to new lands without restriction.