In this essay, Professor Goldberg re-reads the classic of the Chicago Sociology, The Polish Peasant in Europe and America, against the backdrop of the present crisis in Western democracies associated with in part the flows of refugees in Europe and immigrants in the US. Translating this essay is for the hope of inspiring those of us in Chinese communication research to interpret the Chicago School in a new distinct lens, namely, how to read the classics in the present-day political contexts. This essay also shows us how the classic offers us the theoretical resources and problematics when critically analyzing the present conditions.