Slovenes of Cleveland: The Creation of a New Nation and a New World Community, Slovenia and the Slovenes of Cleveland, Ohio.

Cleveland, Ohio, is a city in which ethnic origins are taken seriously - to the point where official boosters often cite bits of local ethnic trivia. One of the most frequent pronouncements of this ilk is that Cleveland and its surrounding suburbs have the largest Slovenian population outside of Ljubljana. Given that the state's Cleveland-born governor, George Voinovich, is of half-Slovenian ancestry, this piece of local ethnic lore has become a common item in the press in recent years.

Despite the size of the area's Slovenian population, its history has remained relatively inaccessible until the publication of Matjaz Klemencic's book, Slovenes of Cleveland. As the first substantial English-language monograph on this community, the book is a welcome contribution to the literature on ethnic …