Publisher's Synopsis
The "Nebraska Bohemians" is a social media (Facebook) page that was created to honor our Czech immigrant ancestors. This book records some of the contributions made on the page.Bohemians, now called Czech Americans, who are living in Nebraska make up 5.5% of the state's population, the largest percentage of any state.
The term "Bohemians" was not intended to exclude any specific group of Czechs. While Bohemia is a region of the Czech Republic, as are Moravia and Silesia, today these Czech speakers are referred to as Czechs. The term "Bohemians" was used to refer to all early Czech speaking immigrants to America as the Czechs did not have their own country. They came under Austrian-Hungarian rule but did not consider themselves, and weren't, Austrians or Hungarians. The term Bohemian is English and does not come from the Czech language. If you were to attempt to translate Bohemia to Czech it would be Cechy, relating to the region of Bohemia in the Czech Republic. The adjective Bohemian is ceský. Even the early language in America was called Bohemian or in Czech, ceský jazyk.
Do not confuse Bohemian with bohemian. The bohemian lifestyle really has nothing to do with being a Bohemian. The Nebraska Bohemians page uses both words of Bohemians and Czechs interchangeably. The term Bohemians was used especially when referring to the past.
The selected contributions published in this book come from a wide assortment of posts to the Facebook page. They should answer many of the questions for those who may not fully understand who the Czech immigrants were. This includes even today's descendants who didn't have the opportunity to learn from their ancestors.
We must never forget who we are and from where we came. This book is dedicated to keeping that memory alive.
