Laiškai iš svetimų karų: lietuvių spauda apie JAV karus XIX a. pabaigoje - XX a. pradžioje ir lietuvių karių laiškai iš jų
ENThanks to the mass emigration of Lithuanians that started in the second half of the 19th century, by the end of that century a community of more than 100,000 had been formed in USA. Military conflicts of the late 19th and early 20th centuries in which USA took part (the SpanishAmerican War of 1898, the Philippines-American war of 1899-1900, the international invasion of China in 1900) were the first wars that members of the Lithuanian community in USA experienced, and about which their press wrote and published some letters from Lithuanians who had taken part in these wars as US soldiers. The purpose of this book is twofold: 1. To analyse how the Lithuanian immigrant press reflected these wars of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, in which the USA took part. 2. To gather as may letters as possible from Lithuanians who had taken part in these wars and to prepare them for publication. The first objective was made difficult by the fact that there has still been very little research into the subject of so-called "old Lithuanian migration to USA" (second half of the 19th century - 1948) in general, and especially into separate aspects. Lithuanian participation in US wars is no exception, even though in 1927 the author Vytautas Steponaitis published a book (in Lithuanian) called "Amerikiečių lietuvių kariškos aspiracijos XIX amžiaus pabaigoje" (Military aspirations of American Lithuanians at the end of the 19th century), in which he included some letters, which had been previously published in the Lithuanian press, from Lithuanians who served as US soldiers. Unfortunately, the selection of letters is quite limited. Furthermore, only cursory attention is paid to the question of how the Lithuanian immigrant press viewed these wars over a couple of decades, starting from the appearance of the first newspaper in 1897.In that era, Lithuanian newspapers were generally associated with one of three competing ideological currents: the right - often called Catholic; the centre - often called nationalist; or the left - often called socialist. These ideological currents were significant influences in the life of the Lithuanian immigrant. It should be remembered that the Spanish-American war was often called the first "media war", due to the significant presence of press correspondents on the scene. It should be noted that the periodic press of the old Lithuanian immigration era is, probably thanks to the work of historian Bronius Raguotis, one of the best-researched aspects of the history of the old Lithuanian immigration era, but even this field contains much that still needs examining. For example, there is a need for a detailed analysis of the contents of the periodic press, since in this study I could only focus on the specifics of the presentation of international news in the press, and the American Lithuanian community’s link with the wars being conducted by their adopted homeland. In the absence of academic literature, my book had to be based on information from the Lithuanian press of the time, as is commonly the case when studying the early days of Lithuanian emigration. I personally examined all the sets of Lithuanian periodic press of that period available in Lithuania. It can be said that the Lithuanian press in USA followed US involvement in military conflicts very closely, since members of the Lithuanian cortimunity had chosen USA as their new home, and they had to decide how to view events and how to behave. The immigrant communities’ newspapers helped them to understand what was going on, and they helped to shape the opinions of their somewhat limited number of readers.It is to be noted that the readers shared the information they gleaned from the press among themselves. The published thoughts and ideas occasionally were used in immigrant society meetings by some prolific orators of the era, and in this sense it could be said that they influenced the opinion of the whole community. Of course, it was not possible for there to be just one opinion that everyone agreed on, given the ideological currents that were circulating in the community and influencing it Although the immigrant press had had not yet started specialising, a tradition had already been established whereby they provided international political news for their readers. The principal source for news about the military conflicts that the USA took part in during the late 19th and early 20th century period was other-language press, primarily American, but also British, French and other. As the Lithuanians did not have any daily newspapers, they had to make do with a weekly round-up of events or, less often, with information about important events and specific battles, which was apparently obtained while the newspaper was being prepared to be printed. At that time the immigrant newspapers did not have any contracts with other-language press concerning use of their material, except for the newspaper "Saulė" (Sun), which used to buy illustrations from US companies. [...].
