Paper Title
'Työmies?': Finnish Canadians in the Economy: A Historiographic Overview
Location
Fisher 127
Event Website
http://www.finnforumx.com/
Start Date
12-4-2014 10:00 AM
End Date
12-4-2014 10:30 AM
Description
Finnish immigrants are often seen as labor activists, even “radicals,” and key players in the “left-right” political divide, thus indicating a real presence on the “other” side of the economy. How did successive historians build these now-standard views? This paper takes a sweeping tour of writing on Finnish Canadian workers, tracing the evolution of these assessments. Archives and histories provided basic notions of “the” Finnish Canadian and were key sources as professional scholars – many Finns themselves – began their work. In Canada, new academics – Varpu Lindstrom most prominently – wrote about women, arts and culture, intellectual activity, and the impact of Finns as “exceptional” historical actors in socioeconomic terms. But, have historians of Finnish Canadian workers built a convincing case? Examination of Finnish Canadian “economic” historiography offers insights into the Finnish Canadian “story,” and the nature of generalization in immigrant and ethnic history.
Presenter Bio
An Assistant Professor of History, Krats has taught at Western University, London, Canada, for two decades. His ongoing research project is a broad historical comparison of the Sudbury region of Northeastern Ontario and the Keweenaw Peninsula of Upper Michigan. Ideas of “north” and Finnish-Canadian history and culture are additional long-term interests.
'Työmies?': Finnish Canadians in the Economy: A Historiographic Overview
Fisher 127
Finnish immigrants are often seen as labor activists, even “radicals,” and key players in the “left-right” political divide, thus indicating a real presence on the “other” side of the economy. How did successive historians build these now-standard views? This paper takes a sweeping tour of writing on Finnish Canadian workers, tracing the evolution of these assessments. Archives and histories provided basic notions of “the” Finnish Canadian and were key sources as professional scholars – many Finns themselves – began their work. In Canada, new academics – Varpu Lindstrom most prominently – wrote about women, arts and culture, intellectual activity, and the impact of Finns as “exceptional” historical actors in socioeconomic terms. But, have historians of Finnish Canadian workers built a convincing case? Examination of Finnish Canadian “economic” historiography offers insights into the Finnish Canadian “story,” and the nature of generalization in immigrant and ethnic history.
https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/copperstrikesymposium/Schedule/Saturday/51
