Challenge Accepted was chosen by the Association of American University Presses as a "Book for Understanding" the mining industry. The "Books for Understanding" program, which features publications that present "scholarship beyond the headlines," was created by the AAUP to present the public with free and easy to use bibliographies of published materials on various topics.
A big thank you to the AAUP for recognizing Challenge Accepted.
Following is a link to the "Books for Understanding" web page:
http://www.aaupnet.org/booksforunderstanding.html.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Monday, August 16, 2010
Challenge Accepted Presentation and Book Signing in the Local News
The talk and book signing at Michigan Tech is getting a lot of press, even outside of the Houghton/Hancock area. From Marqutte, Michigan's Mining Journal:
"Based in Hancock, the Tyomies Publishing Company rallied strikers and their families during the 1913-14 copper miners' strike. This image from the Keweenaw Digital Archives was taken in February 1914 near the end of the Copper Country's most violent labor strike. Author Gary Kaunonen will give a presentation at 4 p.m. Tuesday in the JR Van Pelt and Opie Library's East Reading Room at Michigan Tech University. He also will sign copies of his books: the latest, "Challenge Accepted: A Finnish Immigrant Response to Industrial America In Michigan's Copper Country," explores the politics and culture of the working class Finnish immigrants who made a stand against the mining companies. The book presents an in-depth look at how members of the Finnish immigrant working class gambled the success of early efforts by participating in the bitter and bloody 1913-14 copper miners' strike. The nine-month struggle between organized labor and the mining companies culminated in the tragic events at Italian Hall. Kaunonen examines the events of the 1913-14 Strike and Italian Hall using often-overlooked proletarian Finnish immigrant sources. A limited number of copies of the book will be available for purchase at the event. For more information, visit www.lib.mtu.edu/mtuarchives/, or call 487-2505."
"Based in Hancock, the Tyomies Publishing Company rallied strikers and their families during the 1913-14 copper miners' strike. This image from the Keweenaw Digital Archives was taken in February 1914 near the end of the Copper Country's most violent labor strike. Author Gary Kaunonen will give a presentation at 4 p.m. Tuesday in the JR Van Pelt and Opie Library's East Reading Room at Michigan Tech University. He also will sign copies of his books: the latest, "Challenge Accepted: A Finnish Immigrant Response to Industrial America In Michigan's Copper Country," explores the politics and culture of the working class Finnish immigrants who made a stand against the mining companies. The book presents an in-depth look at how members of the Finnish immigrant working class gambled the success of early efforts by participating in the bitter and bloody 1913-14 copper miners' strike. The nine-month struggle between organized labor and the mining companies culminated in the tragic events at Italian Hall. Kaunonen examines the events of the 1913-14 Strike and Italian Hall using often-overlooked proletarian Finnish immigrant sources. A limited number of copies of the book will be available for purchase at the event. For more information, visit www.lib.mtu.edu/mtuarchives/, or call 487-2505."
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Presentation and Book Signing
From the Michigan Tech Archives blog at: http://blogs.mtu.edu/archives/.
Archives Features Talk & Book Signing by Local Author Gary Kaunonen
The Michigan Tech Archives hosts local author Gary Kaunonen for a presentation and book signing in the JR Van Pelt & Opie Library’s East Reading Room on Tuesday, August 17 at 4 p.m.
In his latest book, Challenge Accepted: a Finnish immigrant response to industrial America in Michigan’s Copper Country, published by Michigan State University Press, Kaunonen tells the story of the Finnish immigrant challenge to the historic social order. He explores their clash with Copper Country industrialists by examining the written record and material culture of the Finnish immigrant working class through analysis of buildings, cultural institutions, and publication of print media.
Challenge Accepted takes an in-depth look at the way a portion of the Finnish immigrant working class gambled the success of early organizational efforts by participating in the bitter and bloody 1913-14 copper miners’ strike. This nine-month struggle between organized labor and the mining companies culminated in the tragic events at Italian Hall. Kaunonen examines the events of the 1913-14 Strike and Italian Hall using often-overlooked proletarian Finnish immigrant sources.
Kaunonen suggests that the most noteworthy accomplishment of these Finnish immigrants in the Copper Country was that as a largely unskilled group of immigrant laborers, newspaper employees, and radical “hoboes,” they had a very considerable impact on the history of a place dominated by powerful mining companies and the men who ran those companies. This was truly remarkable, a challenge accepted by a proactive segment of the Finnish immigrant working class to have a say in their own working conditions. Embedded in this study of ethnic political-labor history is also a story of division and decline that ultimately fractured a working class movement dedicated to solidarity. This demise is significant when recounting the capabilities and vulnerabilities of the American labor movement in the early twentieth century.
Gary Kaunonen is a social and labor historian currently working on a PhD at Michigan Tech. He received a Master’s in Industrial History and Archaeology from Michigan Tech in 2007, and for a while worked as an archivist at the Finnish American Historical Archive at Finlandia. Kaunonen studies the history of the UP’s Finnish immigrant population, and the interaction between Finns and American industry. Both of his grandfathers worked in the iron mines of Minnesota’s Mesabi Iron Range, and Kaunonen himself charged blast furnaces and operated a bull-ladle before turning to academics. His first book, also published by Michigan State University Press, is called Finns in Michigan.
Limited copies of Kaunonen’s latest book, Challenge Accepted, will be available to purchase at the August 17 event at the JR Van Pelt & Opie Library at Michigan Tech.
For more information, call the Archives at 487-2505.
Archives Features Talk & Book Signing by Local Author Gary Kaunonen
The Michigan Tech Archives hosts local author Gary Kaunonen for a presentation and book signing in the JR Van Pelt & Opie Library’s East Reading Room on Tuesday, August 17 at 4 p.m.
In his latest book, Challenge Accepted: a Finnish immigrant response to industrial America in Michigan’s Copper Country, published by Michigan State University Press, Kaunonen tells the story of the Finnish immigrant challenge to the historic social order. He explores their clash with Copper Country industrialists by examining the written record and material culture of the Finnish immigrant working class through analysis of buildings, cultural institutions, and publication of print media.
Challenge Accepted takes an in-depth look at the way a portion of the Finnish immigrant working class gambled the success of early organizational efforts by participating in the bitter and bloody 1913-14 copper miners’ strike. This nine-month struggle between organized labor and the mining companies culminated in the tragic events at Italian Hall. Kaunonen examines the events of the 1913-14 Strike and Italian Hall using often-overlooked proletarian Finnish immigrant sources.
Kaunonen suggests that the most noteworthy accomplishment of these Finnish immigrants in the Copper Country was that as a largely unskilled group of immigrant laborers, newspaper employees, and radical “hoboes,” they had a very considerable impact on the history of a place dominated by powerful mining companies and the men who ran those companies. This was truly remarkable, a challenge accepted by a proactive segment of the Finnish immigrant working class to have a say in their own working conditions. Embedded in this study of ethnic political-labor history is also a story of division and decline that ultimately fractured a working class movement dedicated to solidarity. This demise is significant when recounting the capabilities and vulnerabilities of the American labor movement in the early twentieth century.
Gary Kaunonen is a social and labor historian currently working on a PhD at Michigan Tech. He received a Master’s in Industrial History and Archaeology from Michigan Tech in 2007, and for a while worked as an archivist at the Finnish American Historical Archive at Finlandia. Kaunonen studies the history of the UP’s Finnish immigrant population, and the interaction between Finns and American industry. Both of his grandfathers worked in the iron mines of Minnesota’s Mesabi Iron Range, and Kaunonen himself charged blast furnaces and operated a bull-ladle before turning to academics. His first book, also published by Michigan State University Press, is called Finns in Michigan.
Limited copies of Kaunonen’s latest book, Challenge Accepted, will be available to purchase at the August 17 event at the JR Van Pelt & Opie Library at Michigan Tech.
For more information, call the Archives at 487-2505.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Challenge Accepted "Picked" by Jim Agnew
I got a letter from the good folks at Michigan State University Press letting me know that Challenge Accepted has been featured in Jim Agnew's Literary World in his "Daily Picks" section of books.
Agnew is a book reviewer and according to his web site at http://www.jimagnew.net/, "Jim also is a world-class literary researcher whose clients have included Vincent Bugliosi, Dan Moldea, Bill Zehme, Gus Russo, Bill Kurtis, Jonathan VanMeter, the late Bill Roemer, Nick Pileggi and Nick Tosches. The late Pulitzer Prize award winning columnist Mike Royko referred to Agnew as " the finest researcher of crime in America." He has been profiled in the Chicago-Sun Times, The Chicago Reader and a chapter in the Nick Tosches Reader (DaCapo)."
Thank you Mr. Agnew.
Agnew is a book reviewer and according to his web site at http://www.jimagnew.net/, "Jim also is a world-class literary researcher whose clients have included Vincent Bugliosi, Dan Moldea, Bill Zehme, Gus Russo, Bill Kurtis, Jonathan VanMeter, the late Bill Roemer, Nick Pileggi and Nick Tosches. The late Pulitzer Prize award winning columnist Mike Royko referred to Agnew as " the finest researcher of crime in America." He has been profiled in the Chicago-Sun Times, The Chicago Reader and a chapter in the Nick Tosches Reader (DaCapo)."
Thank you Mr. Agnew.
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