The following review appeared in the October 2014 issue of CHOICE:
North America
52-1020
E184
2013-12249 CIP
Finns in the United States: a history of settlement, dissent, and integration, ed. by Auvo Kostiainen.
Michigan State, 2014. 342p ISBN 9781611861068 pbk, $34.95.
This collection of articles covering the Finnish ethnic experience in the US presents the historiography of the
subject along with discussion of racial, linguistic, and socioeconomic identity and the difference between
Finnish American and Finnish views. Most contributions are solid in quality. Finns were originally classed as
being of the Mongolian race and denied naturalization. Assimilation eased when Finns were officially made
"white Europeans" by US courts. Finns first arrived at New Sweden (1638-1655). Much of Finnish roots
history was lost, mislaid, and destroyed in parish church fires. Most Finns lived in Sweden as burn beaters
before immigrating to the US, so identifying ethnic Finnish immigrants from surviving Swedish records was
an additional difficulty. By the late 19th century, Finns led in the development of rural cooperatives and
extension education. To help themselves, they formed mutual fire insurance cooperatives, dairies and
stores, and accident, savings and credit, and death benefit organizations. Unions provided education for the
management of co-ops. Ethnic identity is the unifying core of these studies. By the 1940s, the Finnish
community was a shadow of its former self. Post-1970s transnational new arrivals have not mixed with the
descendants of early immigrants.
--D. J. Shepherd, Independent Scholar
Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.
