Finnish American Labor History

A Review from a Michigan Source

2011-01-17T22:08:00.002-05:00

From Great Lakes Echo at http://greatlakesecho.org/2011/01/11/two-books-highlight-michigans-copper-mining-culture.

Meanwhile, Gary Kaunonen, a graduate student at MTU, takes a different approach to mining in the U.P.

He focuses on the immigrants from Finland who, with others from elsewhere in Europe, worked in the mines, and the strife between labor and management.

Michigan State University Press, $39.95
“Challenge Accepted: A Finnish Immigrant Response to Industrial America in Michigan’s Copper Country” (Michigan State University Press, $39.95) culminates with a bitter 1913-14 strike that the mine owners won.

Almost a century later, the strike is most remembered for tragedy, not for the underlying conflict over unionization and the Finnish workers’ socialist philosophy. That tragedy killed almost 80 people at a crowded Christmas Eve party for multiethnic strikers and their families at Italian Hall in Calumet.

The victims were trampled to death when someone believed to be a management provocateur who falsely yelled “fire” at the party.

“The Italian Hall Disaster,” Kaunonen writes, “brought incredible misery to thousands of people.

“Because of the number of `Finns’ involved with striking factions, persons of Finnish ethnicity were especially affected by the sorrowful events.”

Challenge Accepted Wins Historical Society of Michigan Book Award

2010-10-20T15:50:00.005-04:00

On stage accepting the award

MSU-Press display with Challenge Accepted at the Conference

Book award from Historical Society of Michigan

Historical Society of Michigan's Gold Seal Book Award on Challenge Accepted cover

As some of you may have already heard, Challenge Accepted, published by Michigan State University Press, won a Historical Society of Michigan 2010 book award (along with Larry Lankton's book Hollowed Ground.)

Although an author's name is on the front cover, as I have come to find out, a book is a very collective undertaking and Challenge Accepted was certainly such a collective undertaking.

To all of you that have advised, edited, translated, helped, employed, funded research, or have shown an interest in the work...I would like to offer a big thank you for your efforts and work.

I don't see the award so much as an individual thing (though I must begrudgingly admit I was pretty excited), rather I see it as recognition of: the great amount of work done by MSU-Press, the important place of Copper Country history in Michigan, Michigan Tech's outstanding record of scholarship, and the Finnish American working class contribution to the building of Michigan.

The award was quite a surprise, a very welcome surprise, which would never have occurred without the help and support from you folks.

For reference, the Historical Society of Michigan announcement of the award listing Larry Lankton's Hollowed Ground and Challenge Accepted is pasted below:

Society Presents 2010 State History Awards in Frankenmuth

FRANKENMUTH—The Historical Society of Michigan presented its 2010 State History Awards at the 136 th Annual Meeting and State History Conference held October 15-17 in Frankenmuth. The awards were presented at the annual awards reception and banquet on Friday evening. The State History Awards are the highest recognition presented by the state’s official historical society.

Fifteen awards were presented this year in a variety of categories including Publications: University and Commercial Press, Publications: Private Printing, Media, Communications, Educational Programs, Restoration/Preservation, Distinguished Volunteer Service, Special Programs and Events, and Lifetime Achievement.

<><><><><><><

Four books were recognized with State History Awards in the Publications: University and Commercial Press category.

The first, Larry Lankton’s “Hollowed Ground” published by Wayne State University Press, chronicles a key part of the Upper Peninsula’s history in recent times—the copper mining industry. The volume concentrates on the beginnings of the three major corporations that came to dominate the industry by 1900, the various mines and the company towns that grew up around them, miner/management relations, and the decline of the major corporations ending with the White Pine mining operation near Ontonagon.

The second book to receive a State History Award in this category was Charles K. Hyde’s “Storied Independent Automakers” published by Wayne State University Press. In this text, Hyde explores the history of the Nash and Hudson car companies which eventually merged in 1954 to form the American Motors Company. More than 90 color photos of restored automobiles as well as brochures, period literature, factory photos, and road test information appear in this volume.

Paul Taylor’s “Orlando Poe: Civil War General and Great Lakes Engineer” published by Kent State University Press was the third recipient in this category. “Orlando Poe” chronicles the life of one of the most influential and yet unrecognized soldiers of the American Civil War. Poe commanded the 2 nd Michigan Infantry during the Peninsular Campaign, and the Civil War era serves as a backdrop for the book. Taylor also documents Poe’s post-war career, in which he supervised the design and construction of numerous lighthouses as well as the largest shipping lock in the world at Sault Ste. Marie.

The fourth book to receive an award in the University and Commercial Press category was Gary Kaunonen’s “Challenge Accepted: A Finnish Immigrant Response to Industrial America in Michigan’s Copper Country” published by Michigan State University Press. As Kaunonen noted in his work, Finns were the largest single ethnic classification in the copper mines and were often treated like the lowest rung of the ethnic ladder. Strong personalities often competed and conflicted in their goals and methods and followings. This volume is a worthy addition to the study of Pre-World War I Copper Country and Michigan history.

The Historical Society of Michigan, which administers the State History Awards, is the state's oldest cultural organization. Founded in 1828 by Lewis Cass and Henry Schoolcraft, it is an independent non-profit dedicated to the preservation and presentation of Michigan's historical

Challenge Accepted and Finns in Michigan Review in Journal of Finnish Studies

2010-09-27T13:46:00.005-04:00

Above is a dual review of Finns in Michigan and Challenge Accepted by Hilary Joy Virtanen of the University of Wisconsin Madison's Folklore PhD program. Hilary wrote the review for the Journal of Finnish Studies' Summer 2010 edition. A big thank you to the Journal of Finnish Studies and Hilary for reviewing and publishing the review on the books. Click on the images to enlarge, and the top image is the first page of the review, middle image second page of the review, and bottom image is the final page of the review.

Challenge Accepted Chosen by AAUP as a Book for Understanding

2010-08-18T20:45:00.003-04:00

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.

Challenge Accepted Presentation and Book Signing in the Local News

2010-08-16T20:04:00.003-04:00

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."

Presentation and Book Signing

2010-08-11T22:22:00.003-04:00

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.

Challenge Accepted "Picked" by Jim Agnew

2010-08-05T13:43:00.003-04:00

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.

Finn Hall Band at Hanka Homestead

2010-07-28T15:52:00.005-04:00

View of Hanka Homestead looking south: savu sauna left, house center, barn complex on right

Been a while since the last post, but really enjoying the beautiful Keweenaw summer. Been out berry picking (the wild blueberries are incredible this year), fishing, playing some league softball, and just generally getting out and having a great time. Festivals are abundant and everything from the pasty to the strawberry is celebrated this time of year, as fellow residents of the Keweenaw try to pack as much activity into the warm summer before the snow begins to fly.

Also, there is a FinnGrandFest occurring in the Canadian Soo this year. The event is a coming together of Finns from the United States and Canada, and promises to be a great time.

As part of all this great summer activity, a really unique experience is coming up quickly. On Monday, August 2 from 6-9, (the Monday after FinnGrandFest ends) Finn Hall Band and the Finnish American comedy troupe Nyt Naura are going to be performing a live, outdoor concert at Hanka Homestead in Michigan's beautiful Copper Country. Hanka is calling it, "Music in the Meadow," and the event promises to be a great event.

Finn Hall Band is one of the last actual Finnish folk music groups left in the U.S. Reflecting the incredible history of music in the Finnish American working class, Finn Hall Band echoes the cultural history of the important place hall culture occupied in Finnish American lives.

Hope to see some of you there. For directions to, and information on Hanka Homestead, please visit: http://hunts-upguide.com/keweenaw_bay_hanka_homestead.html.

FinnForum IX: A Conclusion

2010-06-08T15:37:00.005-04:00

FinnForum IX came and went and as anticipated it was a great conference. Met some folks I had only known through email, met and talked union with a Canadian Fellow Worker, reconnected with a Finnish friend, heard some really great presentations on Finnish, Finnish American (U.S.), and Finnish Canadian labor history, hung out on Bay St. a bit, and had mojakka at the world famous Hoito...all in all the perfect time.

Above are some images from the trip. Doors of the famous Hoito and a current photo of the Finnish Labour Temple.

Perhaps one of the best parts of the conference was the amount of labor history scholarship, and that this scholarship came from people I've read and admired for some time, and also from some really good younger scholars.

Also, really exciting to see that the Labour Temple was receiving some attention in the restoration department for its 100th birthday. The building is such an incredible cultural artifact, and still maintains its function as a hall and meeting place today.

Journal of Finnish Studies

2010-05-11T16:52:00.005-04:00

Update on the Journal of Finnish Studies Summer issue, which is coming together nicely:

Included in the issue are articles relating to Finn halls and the music of Finns in the Industrial Workers of the World from Jim Leary and Aaron Goings; in addition to those from Leary and Goings are articles from Tim Frandy and Hilary Joy Virtanen, which analyze the significance of song in the Finnish American working class; and lastly Paul Niemisto looks at the material culture of sheet music in the Finnish American community. Pekka Gronow penned the Conclusion, and I wrote the Foreword concentrating on an idea of working class theory that I've been developing for a while now.

All of the articles are in and are going out for peer review. Jim and Hilary have been doing great work getting the edition together and three out of the five contributors have tapped into a great resource...audio recordings from 1938 fieldwork done by Alan Lomax in the Finnish American community surrounding the Lake Superior area.

The "Lomax Recordings" are a treasure trove of ethno-musical history regarding the culture of Finnish Americans...and this issue of Journal of Finnish Studies chronicles how this musical culture, through song, was expressed in the Finnish immigrant and Finnish American working class.

Look for this issue soon, it is going to be good. Subscription information for the Journal of Finnish Studies at:

http://www.finnala.com/JFS_subs_and_ads.html.

FinnForum IX Update

2010-04-03T10:21:00.000-04:00

The Wage Slave's masthead from 1908. From Michigan Tech's Copper Country Historical Archive in the Garden Level of the JRVP Library.

FinnForum IX is quickly approaching (May 26-27, 2010). Thought I'd post an explanation of my conference paper topic, which is tentatively titled "Forging a Unique Solidarity: Finnish Immigrant Socialists and the Early 20th Century Socialist Party of America":

Finnish immigrants are often thought of as clannish outsiders in the Socialist Party of America’s (SPA) Finnish language federation, but research into early Socialist Party of America sources reveals the immersion of Finnish immigrant leaders and rank-and-file into the greater U.S. socialist movement. The prominence of Finns in the U.S. socialist movement is displayed in English language print media dated 1908, which announces creation of the Finnish Translator's Office located in the Chicago, Illinois, national headquarters of the Socialist Party of America. The success of this office in converging “two proletarian worlds” is demonstrated by the 1914 election of three Finnish immigrants to prominent posts in the Socialist Party of Michigan.

Additionally, the integration of the Työmies Publishing Company's presses and staff while in Hancock, Michigan, for use by English language media such as the Wage Slave (the newspaper of Michigan's state Socialist Party), and the Miner's Bulletin (the newspaper of striking workers during the 1913-14 Michigan Copper Miners' Strike) demonstrated the uniting of resources between Finnish immigrant socialists and their U.S. counterparts. Työmies also published Finnish translations of English language books, translated and published English labor songs in Finnish language songbooks, and translated English language material for periodicals and newspaper articles. Perhaps the most prolific of U.S. media influences was the work of American socialist cartoonists such as Art Young and Ryan Walker. However, the move to join the U.S. socialist and labor movement occurred while Finnish immigrants made a strident attempt to maintain a sense of ethnic identity through media forms and the treasured Finn Hall culture.

Challenge Accepted #3 in Michigan Hot New Releases

2010-03-30T15:50:00.004-04:00

Continued good news for Challenge Accepted as the book's history finds an audience. Amazon lists Challenge Accepted as the #3 Hot Release in Michigan-themed books. Again, big thanks go out to those who have purchased a copy of the book...Finnish immigrants involved in the historic American labor and political movement have an incredible story to tell, and I'm happy that there is a receptive audience open to reading such history. As a state Michigan has an incredible labor history and the Finnish immigrant contribution is one element of this storied working class history.

A Big Thank You--Kiitos Paljon

2010-03-28T10:54:00.004-04:00

Challenge Accepted has been doing really well in its early release on amazon.com. It is the #2 book in Finland, and is the #5 book in Michigan. A huge "thank you" in English and "kiitos paljon" in Finnish to those who have bought the book.

Though the official release date is May 1, the International Labor Day, the book has been out for about two weeks now. Links to ordering information at amazon.com and Michigan State University Press are on the left-hand column of this blog.

Challenge Accepted Now In Stock

2010-03-09T09:51:00.005-05:00

Images from Challenge Accepted depicting the staff of the TPCo and an English language ad for the company's printing and bookbinding business, both the images date to 1912.

Challenge Accepted is now in stock and on-line. Ordering can be done through Michigan State University Press' web site at: http://msupress.msu.edu/bookTemplate.php?bookID=3913 or

or on Amazon at: http://www.amazon.com/Challenge-Accepted-Immigrant-Industrial-Michigans/dp/0870138731/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268146461&sr=1-2.

Finnish North American Literature Association

2010-02-07T12:32:00.004-05:00

A great site and supporter of authors with Finnish American heritage is FinNALA or the Finnish North American Literature Association. Dr. Beth Virtanen hosts the site, and maintains the site as an informational clearing house for all things written with Finnish North American context. There are hundreds of author listings and biographies on the site, below is a link to mine, but be sure to check out others as well. The FinNALA site is a great source of information: http://www.finnala.com/Kaunonen_Gary.html

Challenge Accepted in MSU-Press Spring Catalogue 2010

2010-01-15T17:25:00.003-05:00

Click on image to enlarge

Challenge Accepted's description page in the Michigan State University Press Spring 2010 catalogue. A link to the catalogue's on-line pdf: http://msupress.msu.edu/pdfs/2010%20spring%20catalog.pdf.

Finn Forum IX--2010

2010-01-15T16:35:00.005-05:00

Image of Finnish Labour Temple, Thunder Bay, Ontario, ca. 1910

A great opportunity for Finnish immigrant and Finnish American history: Finn Forum IX being held on the campus of Lakehead University in beautiful Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. This cultural studies and history conference is being held May 26-27, 2010.

I have been given the chance to present at the conference and am really excited to head north of the U.S. border. Thunder Bay, in itself, is an exciting place for Finnish immigrant and Finnish American history. There is a strong labor tradition in Thunder Bay, which includes the incredible Finnish Labour Temple (which is celebrating its 100th Anniversary), the amazing Hoito Restaurant, and of course, historic Bay Street.

I have relatives in Thunder Bay, and when my grandpa Neal was still alive, we'd head to Thunder Bay some summers to visit. We'd always have to stop at the Hoito, and if memory serves right, it was family style dining. We had an old bachelor lumber-jack relative who lived in an apartment on Bay Street, which is where the old jacks congregated and ate at the Hoito because the food was good, the price great, and the portions big. Good memories.

More details on the presentation later and for information about Finn Forum from Lakehead University's web site: http://www.finnforumix.ca/. Also, web page about the Labour Temple and Hoito: http://www.hoito.ca/article/history-of-the-finnish-labour-temple-4.asp.

Review of Finns in Michigan from the Michigan Historical Review

2009-12-21T14:26:00.006-05:00

This review was done this September by Guntis Smidchens, a member of the Scandinavian Studies Department at the University of Washington. The review was published in the Fall 2009 issue of the Michigan Historical Review.

The review:

Gary Kaunonen. Finns in Michigan; Book review

Smidchens, Guntis

Gary Kaunonen. Finns in Michigan. "Discovering the Peoples of Michigan" series. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2009. Pp. 123. Appendices. For further reference. Index. Notes. Photographs. Paper, $12.95.

The Finns of Michigan gained a prominent place in American ethnic scholarship when Michigan State University historian Richard M. Dorson wrote a chapter about them in his classic, Bloodstoppers and Bearwalkers: Folk Traditions of the Upper Peninsula (1952). More than a half-century later, the tradition of Finnish ethnic studies is ably carried on by Gary Kaunonen, archivist at Finlandia University's Finnish American Historical Archives in Hancock, Michigan. Kaunonen avoids the stereotypical account of immigrant accomplishments and contributions to America, offering instead a work "inclusive of the good, the bad, and the ugly aspects of the Finnish experience in Michigan" (p. 1)."Ugly" refers to the ideological rift that ran deep, splitting the immigrants from one relatively small European country into violently opposed camps. Kaunonen gives an unbiased account of all political factions (p. 59), succeeding where others such as Armas Holmio fall short (p. 35).

The research behind this book is exceptionally rich and well done.Kaunonen consulted published secondary sources and newspapers in both English and Finnish, and he also makes use of oral histories. The latter sources are essential because so few written documents describe, for example, the logging operations where many Finns worked (p. 32). Women's experiences, too, are not easy to reconstruct (pp. 40-41, 44-45, 69-71, 73-75).

Finnish immigration to Michigan concentrated heavily in the Upper Peninsula; workers were drawn by opportunities offered by copper mines and the timber industry. Finns first came to Hancock around 1864, arriving from Norway's spent mines. Large-scale immigration from Finland proper began in the mid-1880s and peaked around the turn of the twentieth century. Although they arrived as industrial workers, many Finns purchased land and established subsistence farms. Even today in several Upper Peninsula localities, up to one-half of the population can claim Finnish ancestry (p. 8). Among the first Finnish organizations were religious congregations. Finns constructed churches and then split into warring denominations. Secular temperance societies built Finn Halls to host nonreligious activities such as lectures, concerts, dances, and sports; they often housed libraries as well. These social and recreational societies gradually gave way to organized labor groups. The Michigan Copper Strike of 19131914 was one of the events that helped fragment Finns into deeply divided ideological factions.

Strange sociocultural practices such as sauna and the "Finglish" language, along with rumors of drunken knife fights and a preference for communist ideas often marked Finns as stereotypical outsiders and savages. "We do not want Finlanders," the manager of a copper mine once wrote to the commissioner of immigration at Ellis Island (p. 18). But Finns also left a positive mark on American culture when they organized Michigan's first successful consumers' cooperatives, which grew to include large numbers of non-Finns. These cooperatives began to disappear only recently, replaced by supermarkets (pp. 80-83).

In summary, Kaunonen's Finns in Michigan adds a valuable case study of one very diverse ethnic group to the history of American ethnic communities and their cultures. This brief review cannot do justice to his colorful, rigorously researched book.

Guntis Smidchens
Department of Scandinavian Studies
University of Washington, Seattle
December 17, 2009

Update on Projects and Challenge Accepted

2009-12-16T15:12:00.004-05:00

Busy, busy, busy...as with most folks this time of year, things are hectic. I'll detail two of the projects that I am involved with below, but first an update on Challenge Accepted: it has appeared on the Michigan State Press author pages and this is a link to that site: http://msupress.msu.edu/authorbio.php?authorID=2654. The book is also available from amazon.com (among other sellers) at: http://www.amazon.com/Challenge-Accepted-Immigrant-Industrial-Michigans/dp/0870138731/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1260997332&sr=1-2. The book will come out sooner from Michigan State University Press, but the release date on amazon is May 1, "Vapaus" very fitting for a book about the cultural and labor history of a working class group.

Now, to two projects I have been lucky enough to become associated with:

1) Writing the forward to a Journal of Finnish Studies edition regarding Finnish American labor history and folklore. This edition of the Journal of Finnish Studies promises to be a really interesting (as the all are), inter-disciplinary look at Finnish Americans and working class culture in the labor movement. The article authors for this edition are experts in this field, and I'm really excited to be associated with the work. Articles are being contributed by Dr. James P. Leary, a professor of folklore at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who has a number of classic (and really humorous) books about folklore in the Upper Midwest. Also, two PhD students in the Madison folklore program are contributing articles, Hilary Virtanen and Tim Frandy. Both, really good folklorists who have roots in the UP and northern Wisconsin.

Last, but not least, a friend and labor historian from Aberdeen, Washington, Aaron Goings, is contributing an article. Aaron just finished his PhD dissertation on the social and labor history of the Grays Harbor, Washington, area, all 500 pages of it! Finns factor greatly in his research and writing, so hopefully his dissertation gets published soon, and his article for this edition of the Journal examines aspects of the Finnish American labor movement in this region.

I already kind of have the hook for the forward, which is that the articles in the edition all center on the creation of working class literacy...beyond something like teaching immigrants the basics of reading and writing, to an expanded literacy of what it meant to be class conscious. This is what the Industrial Workers of the World or "Wobbly" songs and culture were in essence doing, and something that the authors of the articles really bring forth in their research and writing. I think the issue promises to be an outstanding edition of the Journal of Finnish Studies, which is edited by Dr. Beth Virtanen, who is a visiting scholar at Finlandia University.

2) This project is an article for a book of articles relating to ethnicity in the Upper Peninsula and is being edited by Hilary Virtanen (see above). I am writing an article on the importance of Finn Halls in the Upper Peninsula, and have decided to concentrate on labor halls in Marquette, Negaunee, Rock (or Maple Ridge), and Hancock. Through this process I have had the chance to visit the archives at Northern Michigan University in Marquette and have found that they have a great collection of materials regarding the Rock Workers' and Co-op Hall. Equally exciting, the archivist there, Marcus Robbins, knows that it is a great collection and is looking into ways to make the material more accessible to the public. This truly unique collection from Rock has a great home at Northern!

Another Finns in Michigan Review...From Finland No Less

2009-10-05T14:42:00.004-04:00

Click on the images to enlarge and read the review, top is first page of the review, bottom second

Above is another review of Finns in Michigan sent to me by the good folks at Michigan State University Press. This review was done by Dr. Mika Roinila, a professor at Bethel College in Mishawaka, Indiana. A kind of cool thing about this review is that it was done for the Finnish quarterly Siirtolaisuus/Migration, which is published by The Institute of Migration located in Turku, Finland. Dr. Roinila did a great job on the review. He wrote about some things he liked in the book, and also gave a good critique of what he would have liked to see more of in the book. As an author, I really enjoy reading a good, well thought out and well-written critique because I recognize there is always room to grow as a historian and writer. Critiques are a good chance to learn if you will allow yourself to listen.

Michigan State University Press Catalogue Entry

2009-09-29T21:17:00.002-04:00

Striker's gathering outside the Western Federation of Miners headquarters in Calumet, 1913

Challenge Accepted is about ready to hit the presses. This week I received the text for the Michigan State University Press catalogue entry...it reads as follows:

A fresh view of Michigan’s Copper Country through the eyes of Finnish immigrants

Challenge Accepted
A Finnish Immigrant Response to Industrial America in Michigan’s Copper Country
Gary Kaunonen

Michigan’s Copper Country, once one of the world’s major copper-producing regions, is located on the Upper Peninsula, in the northern reaches of the state. There were active copper mines in the area for 150 years, from 1845 until 1995. Many of the mine workers in this region were immigrants to the United States. Like workers in other low-paying and hazardous occupations in the early twentieth century, mineworkers in Copper Country attempted to unionize, in order to obtain better working conditions, wages, and hours.

The Michigan miners were unsuccessful in their struggles with mine owners, which came to a climax in the 1913–14 Copper Country Strike. This nine-month battle between workers represented by the Western Federation of Miners (WFM) and the three major mining companies in the region took a particularly nasty turn on Christmas Eve, 1913, at a party for strikers and their families organized by the WFM. As many as 500 people were in the Italian Benevolent Society hall in Calumet, Michigan, when someone reportedly shouted “fire.” There was no fire, but 73 to 79 people, over 60 of them children, died in the stampede for the exit.

Against this dramatic backdrop, Gary Kaunonen tells the story of Finnish immigrants to Copper Country, who arrived during the late 19th and early 20th centuries with little understanding of the American copper mining industry. By examining the written record and material culture of Finnish immigrant proletarians—analyzing buildings, cultural institutions, and publications of the socialist-unionist media—Kaunonen adds a new depth to our understanding of the time and place, the events and a people.

/author/Gary Kaunonen earned his Master’s in Industrial History and Archaeology from Michigan Technological University and is currently in MTU’s Ph.D. program in Rhetoric and Technical Communication. Both of his grandfathers worked in the mines of the Mesabi Iron Range in northeastern Minnesota and, before becoming an academic, Kaunonen, himself, charged blast furnaces and operated a bull-ladle in an iron foundry. He is the author of Finns in Michigan (MSU Press).

Challenge Accepted Cover

2009-09-04T11:32:00.008-04:00

A while back I got a chance to preview the cover for Challenge Accepted and it is spot-on. The person who did the cover really captured the essence of the book. The designer used a sort of strike poster template and added an image I sent to Michigan State University Press. The image is from a Työmies publication that has not seen the daylight in probably 90 or more years. The labor cartoon depicts the awakening of mineworkers in the Copper Country.

The really unique aspect of this cartoon, drawn by Konstu Sallinen, is that it shows this "mental" awakening by depicting a physical event that portrays a mineworker standing up to shake the very foundations of the Copper Country's ground. This action, by the purposefully enlarged laborer, sends the copper bosses running. The theme of proletarian awakening and revolt is one that was sounded frequently by Finnish immigrant socialist-unionists and one that the book explores in-depth.

Challenge Accepted Synopsis and Chapter List

2009-07-10T16:02:00.004-04:00

The Työmies Publishing Company printed the English language newspaper the Wage Slave in an attempt to join and influence the American socialist movement

A 500-or-so-word synopsis of Challenge Accepted:

Generally, Finnish immigrants entered Michigan’s Copper Country during the late 19th and early 20th centuries with little understanding of the American industrial setting. Their experiences with Copper Country industry and society led some of these immigrants to formulate a proactive response via direct action against the hegemony of Copper Country monopoly capital. Challenge Accepted explores the Finnish immigrants’ clash with the Copper Country industrial setting by examining the written record and material culture of Finnish immigrant proletarians through analysis of buildings, cultural institutions, and publication of socialist-unionist media.

This collective response by Finnish immigrant proletarians was in essence an answer to an unspoken challenge issued by the Copper Country’s mining oligarchy to Finnish immigrants, beguiling them to struggle for the betterment of their lives in America. Finnish immigrant proletarians accepted this tacit challenge from the mining companies facing great odds. Resistance to this challenge came fast and furious from the mining companies and at times, even from within their own organizations as the movement struggled with equality within its ranks, creating a focused direction, recognizing a guiding ideology, and utilizing agreed upon strategy and tactics.

Finnish immigrant proletarians wagered the success of their organizational efforts by agitating for and participating in the bitter, sometimes bloody 1913-14 Copper Country Strike. This 9-month struggle between organized labor (Western Federation of Miners) and the mining companies created great fits of passion and sorrow. No event created more anguish than the tragic events at Italian Hall. Challenge Accepted examines the events of the 1913-14 Strike and Italian Hall using often-overlooked proletarian Finnish immigrant sources.

Challenge Accepted concludes that the most noteworthy accomplishment of the Finnish immigrant socialist-unionists in the Copper Country was that as a largely unskilled group of immigrant laborers, newspaper employees, and “hobo” socialists, they had a very considerable impact on the history of a place dominated by powerful mining companies and the men who ran those companies. Finnish immigrant socialist-unionists in Hancock grew a small upstart cultural organization, with a small upstart publishing company, into a force that could contend with the power of monopoly capital in the Copper Country.

This was truly remarkable, a challenge accepted by Finnish immigrant socialist-unionists to have a say in their own working conditions in a place dominated by a mining oligarchy; but embedded in this study of ethnic political-labor history is also a story of division and decline that ultimately and terminally fractured a truly proletarian movement dedicated to working-class solidarity. This demise is significant when recounting the capabilities and vulnerabilities of the American labor movement in the early twentieth century.

Chapter List:

Introduction

Chapter 1. Finnish Immigration and Settlement in a Hancock, Michigan, Neighborhood
Chapter 2. Finnish Immigrant Cultural Organizations and the “Finn Hall”
Chapter 3. Finnish Immigrant Socialist-Unionists in Hancock
Chapter 4. The Early Existence of the Työmies Publishing Company, 1904–1909
Chapter 5. The Työmies Publishing Company Reaches Maturity, 1910–1913
Chapter 6. The 1913–14 Copper Country Strike
Chapter 7. Gun Hounds, Scabs, and Tragedy
Conclusion
Epilogue
Appendix 1. Työmies Publishing Company Staff and Contributors, 1909
Appendix 2. Työmies Publishing Company Interior Use of Space
Appendix 3. Copper Territory Strikers’ March Song, 1913
Appendix 4. Työmies Publishing Company’s Composite List of Italian Hall Deceased, 1913

Finns in Michigan Hits #3 on Amazon's Hot New Releases and Two Reviews

2009-06-25T19:51:00.006-04:00

Review of Finns in Michigan by Pam Brunfelt from the Finnish American Reporter (click on the image to enlarge)
Review (left hand side of page) of Finns in Michigan from Michigan History magazine (click on the image to enlarge)

Finns in Michigan has hit #3 on Amazon.com's Hot New Releases for Michigan. The book has been in the Top 10 of that category for over 12 weeks. I want to thank those who have purchased the book and have really enjoyed the feedback I have been getting regarding the book and its topics.

Speaking of feedback, two reviews of the book have come out. The first is in the July issue of the Finnish American Reporter. Pam Brunfelt (professor of history at Vermillion Community College and a great historian to boot) wrote the review and did a really good job of capturing the essence of the book. The second review came out in the May/June issue of Michigan History magazine. In that review, they use a quote from the book.

I am pretty happy that the book has been well received, but even more excited that Finnish American history and the working folks who made that history are getting some well-deserved press. You can click on the images to enlarge the articles.

Why Write Challenge Accepted?

2009-05-27T16:09:00.014-04:00

Hibbing, MN, Finnish Socialist Federation local's Workers' Hall

As I am putting the final touches on edits to Challenge Accepted, it occurred to me to answer in print a question a number of people have asked, "Why would anyone write a book like Challenge Accepted? Why are you interested in this topic?"

It is a potentially controversial history about socialist, union minded, and anarchist "Finns," who were a group of people that many may well rather forget...but, and this is a huge but, the contributions and impact of these immigrant socialist-unionist Finns is an important piece in the historical fabric of America.

There have certainly been a number of other books written about the Finnish immigrant socialist-unionist movement and there have been many other books written about labor history, a topic that should be especially dear to Finnish Americans, but Challenge Accepted is a different type of history that analyzes a working class group on its own terms using material culture as a tool of analysis along with the documentary record.

Why material culture? An incredibly influential guru of material culture studies, Thomas Schlereth, writes that material culture creates a, "more democratic, populist, even proletarian history.”

As an extension of social history, which delves into organizations, people, and topics previously disregarded by customary histories, Schlereth writes that, "…both social history and material culture studies challenge the older view of history as past politics, both have sought to demonstrate the great diversity of the American people and their lifestyles, and both have been anxious to expand (some would say explode) the traditional boundaries of American historical scholarship and thereby actually redefine what constitutes American history."

This is my reason for writing a book like Challenge Accepted. It uses the buildings, machines (printing presses, typesetting machines, etc.), and publications of Finnish socialist-unionist immigrants to expand the historical record. I want to bring to light that there are other avenues available when doing the process of history. Authors do not have to be limited by how things have been done in the past, there are alternative methods of research that yield great results for increasing the knowledge base if a person is willing to put in the effort and time to find and work with the not-so-well known resources.

Challenge Accepted is designed to uncover materials, research methodologies, and resources that have up to this point been ignored or scantly accessed in examination of the Finnish immigrants' socialist-unionist movement. It is my hope that the book will stimulate conversation, reveal alternative research methods such as material culture analysis, reserve a place in history for this important immigrant group that challenged the status quo, and hopefully uncover sources that are less traveled or often overlooked.

Is Challenge Accepted the end all authority on Finnish immigrant-socialist-unionists? Of course not, anyone who might claim there work is untouchable or without fault is not grounded in reality or just concerned with making a profit. I think the writing of Challenge Accepted using material culture and ethnic sources is a starting point in opening up non-traditional analysis of history for people or groups like the Finnish immigrant socialist-unionists.

Challenge Accepted Steams Ahead

2009-05-18T12:49:00.004-04:00

1909 collage of Työmies annual serial publications, which were offered in addition to the newspaper, they are in order from left to right, Köyhälistön Nuija (Proletarian Hammer), Vappu (May Day), Työmiehen Joulu (Workingmen's Christmas), and Punanen Juhannus (Red Midsummer).

It has been a while since the last entry, but I've been busy with a couple of side projects. But first, a status update on Challenge Accepted. I've received an edited manuscript and will work on getting final edits ready for publication, this brings production very close and way ahead of schedule. The folks at Michigan State University Press are moving it along and I think it may be ready by the end of 2009.

The side projects: 1) I've joined a great social networking site by the name of Union Book for union minded, collective action folks. Its an incredible forum for union activity and open to membership to all so join today. A link to the site: http://www.unionbook.org/. One of the best features of Union Book is that it is an international site for union minded folks, I've learned so much about organized labor in its international context, which has been exciting.

Out of my Union Book activities I befriended a Canadian union member with Finnish background. Together we have begun blogging about North American working class issues at: http://canusafinn.blogspot.com/. His name is Ilpo and he belongs to Canada Union of Public Employees Local 1356 (CUPE), which represents full-time and part-time workers of York University in Toronto, Ontario. Ilpo is a very smart fella, check out our blog.

Finns in Michigan Feedback

2009-04-09T15:40:00.006-04:00

I've been getting some really good feedback regarding Finns in Michigan. Some is complimentary, some is content/ideological critique and one is a correction. I'm especially thankful for the correction because despite my rather hairy facial appearance (still got the winter growth) I'm human and as the old saying goes humans are known to make mistakes. I like to know when I've got something factually wrong. I'm going to channel Kwai Chang Caine from that great 1970s TV show, Kung Fu, put away pride, and write that I've made a mistake.

In an email, a person pointed out that I had misidentified a member of the noteworthy Mannerheim family of Finland. I identified a Mannerheim visiting Calumet in 1904 as the Mannerheim that later became President of Finland...not so.

The person who notified me about the correction was kind enough to write:

"I would like to point out one case of mistaken identity. On page 10, I read 'Carl Gustav Mannerheim, future leader of the Finns versus the Soviets in the famous Winter War and eventual president of Finland, sought exile in Calumet.' I knew that this could not be so, because he was in Russia during this time, as well as before and after. In 1887 Carl Gustav Mannerheim entered cavalry school in St. Petersburg and left two years later with the rank of second lieutenant. Two years later he was given a position with the Chevalier Guards (the Czarina’s squadron). The Chevalier guards went to Moscow in 1896 for the coronation of Nicholas II, and Mannerheim was chosen to be one of four officers who lined the steps leading to the thrones during the service. In 1893 he was promoted Lieutenant of the Guards, and to Second Captain in 1899."

"When the Russo-Japanese war broke out in 1904 Mannerheim asked for and received a transfer to an outfit that was being sent to the front. He returned to Russia a colonel, with three decorations. Later he was chosen to lead a fact-finding tour to Central Asia and China in 1906-08. Upon return from Asia he was stationed in Poland, where he was promoted to general. He returned to Finland in December 1917."

"There was a Carl Mannerheim who visited Calumet, but it was not the Baron Carl Gustav. Count Carl Mannerheim Sr. had seven children of whom four were boys. According to a custom of that time at least three of them carried the first name of Carl, their father’s first name: they were Carl, the Count (only the eldest son could inherit the title of Count) , Carl Gustav Emil, the future Marshall, and Carl Fridolf Johan. The Count aggravated Bobrikov with his passive resistance and was exiled. He died in Stockholm in 1915. I can find no reference to his having visited in the U.S. so it must not have played a significant part in his life."

My sources are: OTAVAN SUURI ENSYKLOPEDIA; MANNERHEIM, THE YEARS OF PREPARATION by J.E.O. Screen; SOTAMARSALKKA MANNERHEIM, by Herman Gummerus; and MANNERHEIM, MARSHALL OF FINLAND by Stig Jägerskiöld.

Thank you emailer for the correction.

Encyclopedia of American Labor History

2009-04-06T11:46:00.005-04:00

I am very excited to have a small part in a really great labor history project, spearheaded by the outstanding labor historian Melvyn Dubofsky, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Binghamton University, SUNY. This 3 volume work, The Encyclopedia of American Labor History, is being published by Facts on File out of New York. Melvyn is the editor and labor historians Colin Davis, University of Alabama at Birmingham and John Stoner, Binghamton University, are the Assistant Editors.

I do not know if they have a date for when the work will be published, but I would think that it will be available within the next two years...so be on the look out for it. I'm very excited about the project and a resource like this is way overdue for American labor history. Additionally, having a labor historian like Melvyn Dubofsky edit the work is great...he was one of the early advocates of the New Labor History and his book on the IWW, We Shall Be All: A History of the Industrial Workers of the World is a labor history classic (get the unabridged version if you can).

According to the editors, "The Encyclopedia is projected for use by a wide audience of non-history professionals and non-specialists. Its most likely users will be secondary school and community college students and general readers with an interest in the subject matter who will find it available at their local libraries."

Looks to be truly a peoples' resource.

I have the good fortune to be contributing five entries. They are:

1907 and 1916 Minnesota Iron Ore Strikes
1913-14 Michigan Copper Miners Strike and Italian Hall
Work Peoples' College, Smithville (Duluth), Minnesota
Gus Hall (Arvo Halberg), former General Secretary of the CP-USA
Leo Laukki, Finnish immigrant leader of the "Finn Wobblies"

For more information on the project and how to contribute, visit: http://bingweb.binghamton.edu/~jstoner/EALH.html

Italian Hall: The Process of History

2009-03-20T14:03:00.011-04:00

December 26, 1913, edition of Työmies, which detailed events of Italian Hall; the Finnish language sources have for the most part been left out of the writing concerning that tragic event

I am going to wax theoretic here for a bit about the process of doing history using the Italian Hall as an example.

For those of you unfamiliar with Italian Hall, it was a tragic event that took place during the 1913-14 Michigan Copper Strike. No incident during the 9-month strike was more significant than events that occurred on December 24, 1913, at a multi-ethnic Christmas party for strikers and their families at the Italian Hall in Calumet. Sadly, the Christmas Eve party would turn calamitous and tragic. In the waning hours of the afternoon, a stampede of men, women and children went streaming down the stairs of the Italian Hall's second floor where the party was being held. In the stairwell, bodies of fallen people began to pile up on one another, seemingly after a number of people tripped and fell.

The events of that night will likely forever be shrouded in mystery, but some maintain that a cry of fire initiated the fateful rush and some propose that a man wearing a pro-mining company Citizen's Alliance button shouted the false, dubious cry of fire. This assertion has never been verified even after congressional inquires sought to root out fact from fiction. Regretfully, even the gruesome toll of the dead is in question. For many years it was thought that 73 men, woman and children died (children were the majority of those lost in the stampede), but in recent years that number has been placed between 74 and perhaps 80. Shortly after the disaster, the Finnish language, pro-labor newspaper Työmies, published in Hancock, Michigan, placed the number of dead at 83.

Events of that night will seemingly always be surrounded in a cloud of mystery where more questions than answers exist. If anybody today claims to know (or write) exactly what happened that night they are not writing history, rather, they are expressing an opinion. Truth, or the impression of truth, about Italian Hall has all but faded into black because the chaos surrounding the event blurred the historical record and created many myths that today cloud any substantive search for truth in the historical record. The only "truth" that we can state with certitude today is that on that Christmas Eve in 1913 the Italian Hall became the scene of incredible horror, misery and sorrow for many Copper Country families.

A number of articles, books, pamphlets, exhibits, monuments and the like have been written about the singular topic of Italian Hall and provide us a chance to explore a few critical parts in the process of "doing history." One of the great things about the field of history is that anyone can do it. If you had a relative involved in Italian Hall, writing a history about the event or the relative and the event is a great way to expand the knowledge base and historical record. History is not like engineering or chemistry, you do not need heavy equipment to move mountains or a bunch of chemicals to experiment with turning base elements into gold in your basement...history is a peoples' discipline in that almost everyone can do it, but to me there are certain ethics, methodologies and principles that should be adhered to while doing history.

In my opinion, history should be as objective as possible. A historian should not be trying to prove a point or win an argument, leave that to debate teams and trial lawyers. Outwardly trying to prove a point using historical sources is a slippery slope because most often these historical sources are created by or taken from imperfect human beings who have all the pitfalls of human bias and subjectivity. So, no matter how many people swear that something happened how it did in the historical record, there is no way to "prove" that such is the case with documentary evidence. This is not to say that a historian does not have the right to make some conclusions, interpret the historical record in a certain manner, or assert some personal feelings about a topic, but this should always be pointed out clearly in the writing.

To simply write something like, "It must have happened this way because this is the only logical or reasonable thing that could have occurred" is quite simply bad history. It not only leads to people to false conclusions, but that type of writing assumes things that should not be assumed, especially when we remember the old axiom about what it means to assume. Things do not always happen logically, just look at the last 8 years of U.S. history (where's the rim shot on this keyboard) and assuming that things do so, as a person writing about past events, is misleading and is indicative of poor research methodology. History does not have to be "Joe Friday" history (Just the facts please, ma'am), but if a writer or researcher wants to inject personal opinion and interpretation into the historical narrative this should be made absolutely transparent.

The events of Italian Hall are especially susceptible to this because there has been a lot of emotion, mythology and misrepresentation surrounding the event and assumptions could be made on historically subjective things such as testimony, newspaper accounts, and personal memory of events, but this is not the job of the historian. The first job of a historian should be to chronicle various sources through research, writing, and the critique, identification and selection of primary resources.

Now, as a labor historian, I have been accused a couple of times of being too pointed towards a pro-labor view, but this brings up a good point in research and writing...a historian can let bias pick his or her topic, but once that topic is being researched and eventually written about, the bias should end as much as humanly possible.

Challenge Accepted, for instance, may be seen as a pro-labor history, but essentially the book is a labor history about pro-union people...a labor history from the inside out. The book examines an aspect of the Finnish immigrant labor and political movement in the early 20th century on its own terms, using primary sources that were unabashedly pro-labor. If the book is critical of capitalism and large corporations (which it is), it is because the historical actors in this book were critical of those entities.

Regarding the selection of primary resources...to me (and many others), the most important role of a historian is evaluation of primary resources. What gets left in and what gets left out of the research and writing about your topic. Not everyone is good at this and in my estimation this evaluation and use of primary sources distinguishes "good" history from incomplete history.

The evaluation and selection of which primary resources to include in your research and writing is fundamental to doing good history because these are your subjective, first person, time of event sources that capture the feelings, sentiments, or actions of the historical actors or events in question. A number of the works regarding the Italian Hall really drop the ball in this respect because they failed to include or do any personal research of the primary Finnish language sources about Italian Hall. Thus, these works have left out the voice of the largest contingent of ethnic folks whose loved ones died during the tragic events of that Christmas Eve night. Selection of sources is critical to doing good and complete history. Challenge Accepted fills this gap in the primary research of Italian Hall by including quotes from Työmies, which are very powerful...more powerful than anything I could ever write on my own.

Additionally, a word about research, which is the foundation of historical writing. I must admit that I am perhaps a little traditional in this respect, I believe that a historian should do his or her own research...nothing can replace the visceral experience of handling and examining the resource. I will give a good example of this from my own personal experience of working with a tangible item. For Challenge Accepted I looked at the history of the Työmies Publishing Company. In its early history Työmies was a small upstart socialist "rag" with around 1,000 readers, but within the span of a decade it had grown rapidly and achieved a readership of over 12,000. Within this time, the color red had grown to become heavily associated with the paper, its readers and the ideology of the movement it was a mouthpiece for.

So, its 10th anniversary was a pretty big deal. I had read about the 10th anniversary issue of the newspaper, there were greetings from Camille Huysmans, the Belgian socialist and a lot of fanfare. I then had a chance to look at a microfilm copy of the entire run of the 1913 papers and saw the 10th anniversary edition in black and white on a microfilm reader. Later, I decided to look at an actual physical copy of the edition, seeing as Challenge Accepted was to use both historical analysis and material culture analysis. What I found with the physical object was fascinating...the entire 10th Anniversary edition was printed on red paper! Without being in an archive and dealing with the primary resource this unique aspect of Työmies' history would have been lost to me.

To me, historical research should be a first person venture.

Lastly, about the reason for "doing history." I might be a little warped in my perception, but to me the point of the research, writing and work in history, is that someone can come along in 10 or 20 years and totally refute your work. This is how we learn, how the knowledge base is expanded and how the scholarship is increased. It is my sincere hope that in 25 years someone comes along and finds what I did significant enough to tear apart...well, maybe not tear apart, but at least critique. To me history is not about profit or fame, it is about the greater good and understanding those who came before us. This deserves as much scrutiny as possible.

Finns in Michigan #4 on Amazon's Hot New Releases

2009-02-20T11:00:00.009-05:00

Gymnasts in front of Saima Temperance Hall in South Range, Michigan. The early labor movement grew out of "liberal" factions of the temperance societies. This charge toward labor consciousness was led by thespians and early socialists, known as the "Apostles of Socialism," like Tanner and Hendrickson who traveled across the U.S. "preaching" the socialist message. Soon a splitting occured between the more conservative temperance members and the "free thinkers." The splits of Finnish immigrant groups are covered extensively in Finns in Michigan.

Finns in Michigan is #4 on Amazon's Hot New Releases (in Michigan). Here is a link to that page: http://www.amazon.com/gp/new-releases/books/14279091.

When it became known that I was writing a book titled Finns in Michigan a few folks pointed out, “Holmio already wrote that book.” This is true and not true...let me explain...Holmio’s book, titled Michiganin Suomalaisten Historia, was written in 1967 (in Finnish). The translation, which some erroneously call “The Finns in Michigan,” was translated into English by Ellen Ryynanen in 2001 and titled History of the Finns in Michigan. The current book that I wrote, Finns in Michigan, is part of Michigan State University Press’ “Discovering the Peoples of Michigan” series. This series is a very popular ongoing effort of Michigan State University Press that brings to light Michigan's extensive ethnic diversity and I was more than happy to add the Finnish American experience to this wonderful series.

Physically, the two books differ in one main way, Holmio’s book in original Finnish version is 639 pages long and the English version is 512 pages. Finns in Michigan is 136 pages, including end materials.

Stylistically, Finns in Michigan differs from Holmio’s offering in that this rendition of the Finns’ history in Michigan is a broad survey, rather than Holmio’s comprehensive look at the history of Finnish immigrants and Finnish Americans in Michigan. Holmio’s book also has a number of lists of first settlers and pioneers in various communities, which genealogists might prize, while Finns in Michigan is more of a rolling narrative.

Additionally, Finns in Michigan looks at the Finnish experience in Michigan using a much different “lens” than Holmio’s work. Holmio was a pastor in the Suomi Synod and educator at Suomi College. His book is noticeably written from the viewpoint of a person with this background. I remember a discussion I had with Olaf Rankinen, archivist emeritus, when I first hit the scene researching Michigan Finnish immigrant union groups in 2003. After sitting down with Olaf to discuss Työmies and quite frankly not knowing the full history between Suomi and Työmies, I asked Olaf for sources about Michigan Finns in the labor and working class political movement. He gave me a number of sources and included Holmio’s book stating, “He’s a Synodian, but fair to labor and Työmies.”

As Olaf acknowledged, I recognized a predilection in Holmio’s writing and decided that as a social and labor historian, I wanted to offer a different angle on the history of Michigan’s Finns. I am not claiming that what I wrote is better, truer, or somehow more factual; I am just writing that what you will read in Finns in Michigan comes from a different perspective and thus is not a retelling of Holmio’s Michiganin Suomalaisten Historia.

Hope this might clarify the difference between the two books, but of course don't take my word for it, read them both and come to your own conclusions.

Presidential Inauguration

2009-01-20T09:31:00.003-05:00

Below is an article I wrote for The Finnish American Reporter about the election of a black president. I write a monthly column in that newspaper dealing with aspects of heritage and there is generally plenty of historical fodder for articles, but with the election of a President who some folks have been disparaging of because of his ethnicity, I dedicated one article to this contemporary issue.

Generally, I'm not a big supporter of established politics (i.e. "The Man"), but I supported and will support Mr. Obama, retaining the option to be critical of his stand and action on organized labor...its been a long time since labor has had a true advocate in the White House, hopefully this will change today...Inauguration Day, January 20, 2009.

The article:

Ask the Archivist…Having a Black President with Muslim Heritage isn’t so Strange

As this year’s Presidential election has come and gone, I am reminded of some of the truly awful comments that were made in the media and that I personally heard regarding the race and heritage of our new President-elect Barack Obama. Some folks took special disliking to the fact that Obama’s father was an African Muslim.

Regardless of political affiliation, I think we all can agree that this election was a very important watershed event in our nation’s history; perceivably for the first time in American presidential history, the color of a person’s skin mattered less than the measure of the individual.

In thinking about the historic nature of the election and some peoples’ behaviors towards race, culture and heritage, I began to wonder how these things have affected the perception of Finns in America. I looked to the archive for answers and found that not so long ago, Finns were on the bad side of some truly stupid thinking regarding race issues and unfamiliar cultural practices.

Not so long ago, the Finns as a race were often characterized as less than honorable people lacking intelligence, responsibility and stimulus control. In fact, often in casual conversation or media jottings Finnish immigrants and their families were referred to as a race of “Jack-pine Savages.” As it was then, race today is a socially constructed entity that typically is built by prevailing power structures intending to divide and compartmentalize.

In 1983, Finnish American sociologist Peter Kivisto wrote in the International Migration Review, “Finns occupied the status of a definite ‘out-group’ even though they are White Protestant. They were depicted as ‘Jack-pine Savages,’ Mongolians (in 1907, an attempt was made to deny them citizenship by invoking existing anti-Oriental legislation), and violence prone revolutionaries.”

The seemingly strange socio-cultural practices of Finnish immigrants further added to others’ misconceptions about their neighbors from Suomi. Strange practices, such as nights when entire families went naked into super-heated buildings to sweat made Finns a rather strange looking lot to those who had never met someone from Vaasa or Oulu.

While sauna was strange and the nakedness of the ritual spit in the face of everything proper and Victorian of that era, borrowing from a feasible, but fictionalized account of Ashtabula Harbor, Ohio’s Finnish immigrant population in the late 19th Century we see another practice could stir the deepest fears of others’ regarding Finns.

A book that I am currently reading in the Archive by author Kalle Potti, Iloinen Harbori (Happy Harbor), addresses the strange way in which others saw the Finnish immigrant practice of cupping, which in theory relieved pain through the process of bloodletting. (In cupping, a healer would make small slits in a person’s back, suck on the leather-covered small end of a hollowed out cow horn while attaching it to the victim’s…I mean patient’s back and then blood would drain into the horn until the horn with the “bad” blood dropped off the back.)

“Soon the word spread around the whole city that four men had been murdered by sucking the blood out of their bodies…People and police gathered around the building, but no one dared go in to inspect. The next day the sheriff and his deputies arrived and (made) an inquiry about the whole affair. Not until all the men showed their backs to the sheriff and Kreeta demonstrated and explained the Finnish method of bloodletting, did the sheriff accept the fact that no murders were committed…The Irish, however, believed for a long time that the Finns had actually murdered four of their own men by sucking the blood through tubes made of cows’ horns.”

Having a bi-racial president with Muslim heritage doesn’t seem so strange does it?

Finns in Michigan Hits MSU-Press Catalogue

2009-01-02T10:55:00.008-05:00

An image from the book, a circa 1927 advertisement from

a Finnish American consumers' cooperative

publication for their proletarian-inspired coffee line

Finns in Michigan has officially hit the Michigan State University Press 2009 Spring Catalogue. Below are the kind words used to describe the book taken from the catalogue. The following is the link to the "Discovering the Peoples of Michigan" series web site and Finns in Michigan page, which has early ordering information: http://msupress.msu.edu/bookTemplate.php?bookID=3645

"This book presents an unvarnished history of a surprisingly diverse group of immigrants. In Finns in Michigan Gary Kaunonen probes the intricacies of immigration, labor, and ideology among the members of this intriguing and historically important ethnic group. He skillfully traces the evolution of a vibrant, diverse, dramatic, and at times deeply quarrelsome people who left an indelible mark on the state's history."

"Kaunonen examines the many schisms and splits that define the course of Finnish social life in Michigan. Michigan's Finns flocked to diverse cultural organizations that span a broad ideological spectrum. This book examines an extraordinarily wide range of organizations, including religious institutions, temperance societies, working-class political and labor groups, the cooperative movement, and a nationalist association of Finns."

"Finns in Michigan is a study of the contributions of Michigan's Finns in the workplace, in society, and in cultural life. Unlike previous, sometimes mythologized, histories of the Finns in Michigan, Kaunonen's rendition strives to be a more accurate representation of 'the good, the bad, and the other" activities of a group he calls "possibly America's most diverse family.'"

Discovering the Peoples of Michigan
Paperback Edition:Photos, notes, references; world rights 136 pp., 5.5 " x 8.5 ", April 2009 paper, $12.95 0-87013-850-2 978-0-87013-850-8

Finns in Michigan on Amazon

2008-12-10T11:29:00.002-05:00

Strange to see something like this, I've searched Amazon hundreds of times for books, but now there's one on it that I wrote. It looks like this book thing is actually happening and I've got to admit while I'm pretty stoic most of the time, I'm a bit excited at this moment. The proof, a listing on Amazon. Order early...

http://www.amazon.com/Finns-Michigan-Dscovering-Peoples/dp/0870138448/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228926302&sr=1-2

Progressive Era Presentation in Calumet

2008-11-26T13:15:00.003-05:00

Text from an article by Jane Nordberg that appeared in the Daily Mining Gazette regarding a presentation I gave on the Progressive Era at the Calumet, Michigan, Public Library, Thursday, November 20, 2008:

The [Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History's] exhibit tells the story of the Progressive Era in the United States when a broad-ranging reform movement worked to make government more democratic, to lessen the effects of industrialization and to regulate business.

Kaunonen's talk Thursday is expected to bring those topics into closer focus.
"It was an era of reform driven by the middle class and the educational aspirations of individuals and families that, for the first time in their family's history, had the means to send their children to college," Kaunonen said.

Kaunonen, archivist at the Finnish American Historical Archive and Museum at Finlandia University, will also provide an overview of changes to the national and local labor movement.
"Progressive reformers were not advocates of the groundbreaking change that many working class political and labor organizations advocated," Kaunonen said. "This dichotomy is best seen locally in the 1913-14 strike."

The Western Federation of Miners was an organization bent on the transformation of the economic order, he said, while Michigan's Gov. Woodbridge Ferris was a believer in the power of Progressive Era reforms.

"Ferris looked to implement gradual and metered change," Kaunonen said, while "the WFM and union-minded Copper Country workers looked to radically transform the power structure of the mining companies on the region."

2008-11-24T11:22:00.006-05:00

Good news...

The Finns in Michigan is now on its way to the presses. The book is set to arrive on shelves in April of 2009.

(The image is one that did not make the final cut, but none-the-less is pretty interesting. It is an image of the reviled one-time Governor General of Finland Nikolai Bobrikov. The Finns especially detested Bobrikov because he ushered in some of the late 19th and early 20th Century Russification programs designed to intensify subjugation of Finns in the Russian empire. The Finns responded to these programs by assassinating Bobrikov in 1904.)

Thinking back on the process, I have the utmost respect for editors and the editors who worked on The Finns, Kristine Blakslee and others from Michigan State University Press, were absolutely amazing. I cannot thank them enough for turning my ideas into a coherent narrative.

As I wrote earlier, the process from idea to page to book is pretty involved. I'll detail it here...

This process of writing The Finns started when I ran across a non-descript folder in the Finnish American Historical Archive. The materials were early correspondences between a previous author and Michigan State University Press for Finns in Michigan. The author had began the process of writing and then given up on the book. I still haven't figured out why, but the contract lapsed and the book was sitting out there waiting to be written.

This is a link to the series web site: http://msupress.msu.edu/series.php?seriesID=1

I made some inquires around the area to make sure the previous author was out and then contacted Art Helwig, series editor. After talking with Art and noting that The Finns would have a great audience, I set to contacting the necessary folks to get the ball rolling. After speaking with Art, I contacted Julie Loehr at Michigan State University Press, studied the "Peoples in Michigan Series" to see if what I had as a vision for the book would fit. It did and after getting the pertinent info together and contracts signed I thought well this has been easy so far...

That all changed with the writing and editing. I started my first draft in September of 2007 and worked on that to rough draft completion for about half a year. I last modified the draft in April of 2008. The first official edit occurred prior to April 08 and in between the first guided edit and the final draft submission on advice of the MSU-Press staff, I added and subtracted a number of things including a small section on suffragette, temperance crusader and women's activist Maggie Walz and more information about Finns in downstate Detroit area.

After the final draft was okayed it went to production. From production I got back page proofs, which are a sort of book draft. I looked that over and at this point you can only make critical corrections. I did two and then the page proofs were done. When all the pages were in a final order, it was time to do the index. I did that process myself and that is pretty time consuming as well. Once the index was done, the book was ready for print. A long process, but well worth it. I'm very happy with the outcome and working with the good folks at MSU-Press was great.

Challenge Accepted Rough Manuscript In

2008-11-11T13:05:00.006-05:00

I finally have a complete rough manuscript for Challenge Accepted: A Finnish Immigrant Response to Industrial America in Michigan’s Copper Country and it is off for a last check for overall content before heading to the editors. I'm hoping that the two images above can be used for the cover. They are from 1913 and were printed in the satirical publication Lapatossu. I think these images are great depictions of the growth of the Finnish immigrant labor movment. The top image represents the awakening of copper mine workers. The little portly fellows running are the mine owners. The image on bottom is the result of the awakening, a strike demonstration by the mass of workers.

Before beginning the process on these books I had no idea of how difficult and how many moving parts there are in the publishing business. Its pretty incredible to see a book move from what you write to bound copy; though as I wrote, that's an involved process. I have the greatest respect for book editors. As a person that is grammatically challenged, what these folks do is pretty incredible.

Now, a little about Challenge Accepted. This book grew out of my thesis work at Michigan Tech. I'm going to include a link to a page at Tech about the thesis: http://www.social.mtu.edu/gradthesesia.htm. If you scroll down three thesis abstracts you will get to an abstract and some images from my work.

The book is quite a bit different from the thesis in that I have included some additional research and more line drawings of the actual buildings. Also included is much more about the 1913-14 Michigan Copper Miners' strike. The book version also has 7 chapters in its current form, a big departure from the thesis, which had only four. I'll update with some more information and a little info on an upcoming speaking engagement in Calumet, MI, I have regarding a history of the Progressive Era.

Presentation link

2008-09-17T15:53:00.005-04:00

A link to a presentation I gave at the Sondereggar Symposium at Northern Michigan University. This presentation, "A Finnish Immigrant Response to Industrial Labor: A Study of Material Culture," discussed some early research that led to writing on the material culture of the Finnish immigrant labor and political movement. After clicking on the link, scroll down to #13 and click on that link for audio of the presentation.

http://www.acs.nmu.edu/media/sonderegger2006.xml

Finnish American Labor History

2008-09-16T14:57:00.003-04:00

Greetings...this is the first post for a blog that will discuss two upcoming books dealing with Finnish American labor and social history. I would also like to use this blog as a chance to open a forum into not only Finnish American labor and social history, but also working class issues, which as many of you know, receive little to no attention in public school curriculum or the current mass media.

I currently have two books coming out through Michigan State University Press. The first is The Finns in Michigan. It is another title in the excellent "Discovering the Peoples of Michigan" series. It is due out Spring 2009. If you enjoy labor history, then I believe you will enjoy this book and I truly hope it will be the starting point or a catalyst for a resurgence in honoring the history of those that struggled for industrial democracy and at the same time helped to build America. This book is a pretty raw interpretation of the Finnish American working class and also contains historical elements that are common to the overall American working class.

In upcoming posts I will give an overview of the next book that deals with Finnish American socialist-unionist history in the copper district of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. This book also has two chapters on the 1913-14 Copper Strike led by the Western Federation of Miners.