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Essay on Immigrant Workers in America: A Fictional Account By Thomas Bell
In 1946, the novelist Thomas Bell explained why he had written Out of this Furnace, the best piece of fiction yet produced by an American of Slavic background: “My conscience dictated that I write it. I saw a people brought here by steel magnates from the old country and then exploited, ridiculed, and oppressed. None of my books contains such a slice of life as this book about my people. The life of a Slovak boy in Braddock 30-40 years ago was a bitter one. As a small boy I could not understand why I should be ashamed of the fact that I was Slovak.
While Irish and German kids could boast of the history of their ancestors, I did not know anything about the history of my people. I made up my mind to write a history of the Braddock Slovaks ... I wanted to make sure that the hardships my grandfather, my father, my mother, and my brother, sisters, and other relatives lived through would not be forgotten.”
Few historians would question that the Hungarian national image in America was highest in the middle of the nineteenth century, largely in consequence of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848-1849 and the resulting Kossuth-craze that had swept through the nation in the early 1850s. in the decade before the Civil War the Hungarians were generally viewed as a "noble nation" and even as a "nation of chivalrous nobility"--always ready to fight for justice and freedom. (Bell, 1985) This lofty image remained in force only for a few decades. By the last quarter of the 19th century it was being rapidly replaced by the lowly "Hunky" image of unwashed and uncouth peasant immigrants, an image that came to be applied to all of the people of Eastern and Southeastern Europe.( Bell, 1985).....
