Podcast appearances and mentions of Dominic A Pacyga

If you've ever lived in Chicago, you've probably heard at some point that Chicago has the largest Polish population outside of Warsaw. While that's an exaggeration it's certainly the case that the Chicagoland region has a large population of people of Polish descent and that Chicago is important historically to American Polonia. From the earliest Polish immigrants to Chicago in the 1830s through today, Poles have helped shape the culture, politics, religion, and food of Chicago. This week we dive into that history. Joining me to help us understand more about Polish Chicago is Dr. Dominic A. Pacyga, professor emeritus of history in the Department of Humanities, History, and Social Sciences at Columbia College Chicago and author of several books on Polish immigrants and Chicago, including American Warsaw: The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of Polish Chicago in 2019. Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-roll audio is “Mazurka, Op. 24, No. 4, in B Flat Minor,” by Polish composer Frédéric Chopin, performed by Polish pianist and Prime Minister Ignacy Jan Paderewski in in the early 1920s and captured on an Aeolian Company "DUO-ART" reproducing piano; the performance is in the public domain and is available via the Internet Archive. The episode image is the Tadeusz Kościuszko Monument, an outdoor sculpture by artist Kazimierz Chodziński, installed in the median of East Solidarity Drive, near Chicago's Shedd Aquarium; the photograph was taken by Matthew Weflen on Sunday, February 19, 2023, and is used with permission. Additional Sources: “Poles,”by Dominic Pacyga, Encyclopedia of Chicago, 2005. “Can Chicago Brag about the Size of its Polish Population?” by Jesse Dukes, WBEZ Chicago, October 26, 2015. “Where Have All the Polish Pols Gone?” by Edward McClelland, Chicago Magazine, January 6, 2020. “How Chicago Became a Distinctly Polish American City,” by Marek Kępa, Culture.PL, April 27, 2020. “Explore Polish culture in Chicago's neighborhoods,” Choose Chicago. “Chicago's Milwaukee Av. to be renamed Polish Heritage Corridor in honour of city's Poles,” by Stuart Dowell, The First News, June 20, 2022. “Chicago, The Polish City,” Interview of Dominic Pacyga by Łukasz Kożuchowski, Polish History. “Chicago's Polish Constitution Day Parade is back. This year, it has a new theme,” by Adriana Cardona-Maguidad, WBEZ Chicago, May 3, 2022. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

June is Immigrant Heritage Month and we are celebrating all month long by sharing past programs presented in conjunction with our special exhibit My America: Immigrant and Refugee Writers Today. This exhibit has been extended through 2021 and you can explore it in person at the American Writers Museum or online at My-America.org. This week, [...]

June is Immigrant Heritage Month and we are celebrating all month long by sharing past programs presented in conjunction with our special exhibit My America: Immigrant and Refugee Writers Today. This exhibit has been extended through 2021 and you can explore it in person at the American Writers Museum or online at My-America.org. This week, [...]

In the Spring of 2020, one of the first cracks in the American economy with Covid-19 was the closing of several meatpacking plants in the United States.  The nature of the process with workers stationed in close proximity to one another, poorly ventilated spaces, and often arduous work conditions and practices became a breeding ground for the virus and created Covid hot-spots around the country.  Meanwhile, the White House exercising its executive authority via the Defense Production Act ordered slaughterhouses to remain open for fear of disrupting of the nation's meat supply.  This underbelly of the food chain is often overlooked, yet for more than a century Chicago was largely identified with wholesale slaughter and meat processing thanks to the Union Stock Yard & Transit Company, which opened on Christmas Day 1865.  Stockyards and the downstream processing operations would soon become a ubiquitous presence in the economy of the growing metropolis of Chicago, the commerce of the United States, and the world.  Union Stock Yard from Sept. 1866--Chicago IllustratedMid-century postcard of the Stock YardsThe Stock Yards in 1941 The Union Stock Yard & Transit Company led Carl Sandburg to coin the dubious moniker for Chicago, “Hog Butcher to the World.”  Yet these operations provided an important testing ground for great ideas and smart solutions employing many great minds, including civil engineer Octave Chanute (1832-1910) and the architect Daniel Burnham (1846-1912).  The Stockyards were a prime tourist attraction in Chicago for the general public and people of note such as authors Rudyard Kipling, who was shocked by it, or Upton Sinclair, who based his novel “The Jungle” on the conditions and worker experiences there.  The Yards as locals referred to it spurred additional innovations -- for instance the butchering disassembly line inspired Henry Ford to reverse the process to build automobiles which ultimately made them affordable to average Americans.  The Union Stock Yard created huge fortunes and dynasties with names like Armour and Swift, often on the back of worker exploitation, which prompted strife and conflict and influenced the development of labor unions.  Great gusts blowing across the prairie turned small fires into great conflagrations on several occasions, and yet the Yards survived for more than a century before meeting its demise to the gradual shift of economic winds.  However in its heyday, the Yards was the place to be.  Join us in this episode to hear some more great Chicago history as we interview historian Dominic A. Pacyga, author of Slaughterhouse: Chicago’s Union Stock Yard and the World It Made.  Image from the 1934 Stock Yard FireThe Union Stock Yard Gate in 1879Unloading hogs from Stock Cars in 1912Christopher Lynch & Dominic PacygaRevolving Hog Wheel at the Armour Plant in 1912Dominic Pacyga & Patrick McBriarty Links to Research and Historic Documents WTTW Chicago Stories: The Union StockyardsAmerican Heritage: 1800s Chicago Union StockyardsCollection of images of the Union Stock Yard & Transit Company from the Industrial History websiteAuthor Dominic Pacyga and his books from the University of Chicago PressDominic Pacyga Shares History of Chicago’s Stockyards in ‘Slaughterhouse’ November 23, 2015 on WTTW1910 Union Stock Yards Fire on Chicagology website1934 Union Stock Yards Fire on Chicagology websiteChicago Public Art: Union Stockyard GatePackingtown Museum at The Plant in the Back of the Yards neighborhood of Chicago"The Jungle" a novel by Upton Sinclair based on the stockyardsOctave Chanute civil engineer and aviation pioneer

Prof. Dominic A. Pacyga is a historian and researcher who analyzes the city of Chicago not just as an urban conglomerate, but as the collective and diverse story of settlers, immigrants, and locals who built it through their flesh and turned it into the "most American city". Teaching for over four decades, at Columbia College and the University of Chicago, his book—published by the University of Chicago Press— and titled "Chicago: A Biography" is a vivid portrait of the quintessential skyscraper jungle. His work as an author appeals both academics and individuals, with the exploration of the "city of neighborhoods".  

This week: Duncan and guest interviewer (who really does most of the interviewing while Duncan slumbers) Anna Kunz talk to artist and educator Jay Wolke! This entertaining and at times wacky interview is not to be missed. As you listen to this you can think to yourself; "I wonder what general zaniness was in the 10 minutes Richard chopped out of this show for the purposes of brevity and flow", but you can rest comfortable that most of it consisted of Anna giving Duncan a hard time. Do not miss the longest, most unfocused and rant laden outro/credits in the history of the show, where Richard and Duncan are interrupted by Buses, the El, a panhandler, and Richard's spontaneous rant about a cop on a Segway smoking a cigarette. This spawns a discussion about the ascendancy of "douchebag" in the contemporary lexicon. Wow. That is a lot of quality show!Lifted shamelessly for somewhere else:Jay Wolke is professor and chair of the department of art and design at Columbia College Chicago, and the author of All Around the House: Photographs of American-Jewish Communal Life. Dominic A. Pacyga is a professor at Columbia College Chicago, and the author and editor of numerous books on Chicago's history, including Polish Immigrants and Industrial Chicago and Chicago, both published by the University of Chicago Press.