Finns in Michigan
By: Gary Kaunonen.
Series: Discovering the peoples of Michigan
Publisher: Michigan State University Press
Published: 2008
Place of publication: East Lansing
Language: eng
Number of pages: 123
ISBN-13: 9780870138447
Copyright date: 2008
Subjects: Finnish Americans -- Michigan -- History; Finnish Americans -- Michigan -- Social conditions; Finnish Americans -- Employment -- Michigan -- History; Working class -- Michigan -- History
Work titles: 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
Description: 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.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.