ABSTRACT
The chapter discusses deep changes which occurred in the communities and among their inhabitants throughout the “roaring twenties” and the Great Depression. In the 1920s, new organizations were formed in response to new needs. The period was marked by the rising of ethnic middle class. Mass culture transformed houses and behaviors of Polish Americans. This decade was followed by the catastrophe of Great Depression. People’s responses to the hard times are depicted. The period of 1930s is marked, among other changes, by significant emancipation and rising position of women in ethnic families. People of Polish descent (including women) were also active politically on the American scene, especially in the formation of industrial unionism movement.
