The 1913-14 Michigan Copper Strike and Italian Hall Book Project: June 2013

Friday, June 21, 2013

The Book has Arrived!

Eight copies of our book Community in Conflict arrived on my (Aaron's) doorstep today. As this photo shows, I was pretty happy about their arrival. The book was many years in the making, and this seems like a good time to extend our gratitude to everyone who made the book possible. We owe a special debt of gratitude to everyone at Michigan State University Press, and the anonymous readers who gave us valuable suggestions along the way.

A final (and big) thank you to John Beck, Larry Lankton, Elizabeth Jameson, and Erik Nordberg who wrote very kind blurbs for the back of the book. It certainly feels good to be recognized by such a star-studded group of scholars.

Gary Kaunonen

Gary Kaunonen did his undergrad at MSU-Mankato; then a Masters at Michigan Tech, studying Industrial History and Archaeology. Research interests: immigration, labor and social history, industrial communities, material culture of the working class, social justice, public history, and working class rhetoric. His Master’s thesis was on Finnish American labor history in Michigan. He is the author of two books published by Michigan State University Press, one of which won the 2010 Historical Society of Michigan Book Award. He also co-authored "Industrial Calumet" for the NPS, which won an award from Association of Partners for Public Lands. Before academic life, Kaunonen worked in industrial jobs in a foundry and welding shop. Recently, he's worked for Keweenaw National Historical Park, as a freelance historian, as the Archivist, Historian and Collections Development Coordinator at the Finnish American Historical Archive, and adjunct faculty at Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College. Currently he is the Assistant Director of Michigan Tech's Writing Program, a Graduate Teaching Instructor, and a PhD student at Michigan Tech in the Rhetoric and Technical Communication program.

Aaron Goings

Aaron Goings is an assistant professor of history at Saint Martin’s University in Lacey, Washington, where he teaches courses on research methods and United States Social History. A longtime resident of Grays Harbor, Washington, Aaron’s interest in the Copper Country stems from his earlier studies of Finnish-American labor history in the Pacific Northwest, and the similarities between the ethnic and labor history of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan with Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. His scholarly interests include labor and the left, Pacific Northwest History, and history of the lumber industry. His dissertation "Red Harbor: Class, Violence, and Community in Grays Harbor, Washington," was completed at Simon Fraser University in 2011. He credits his interest in labor and radical history to his working-class upbringing, which included many hours on picket lines and participating in Labor Day parades. Aaron notes that in Grays Harbor people still consider it to be a major offense to cross picket lines.

Pages

Friday, June 21, 2013

The Book has Arrived!