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BC Books Online was created for anyone interested in BC-published books, and with librarians especially in mind. We'd like to make it easy for library staff to learn about books from BC publishers - both new releases and backlist titles - so you can inform your patrons and keep your collections up to date.
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Description
Above the entrance to the Finnish Labour Temple in Thunder Bay is the motto labor omnia vincit – “hard work conquers all” – reflecting the dedication of the Finnish community in Canada. Hard Work Conquers All examines Finnish community building in Canada during the twentieth century. Waves of immigrants imbued the relationship between people, homeland, and host country with the politics, ideologies, and cultural expressions of their time. This collection of essays explores the cultural identities of Finnish Canadians, their ties to Finland, intergenerational cultural transfer, and the community’s connections with socialism and labour movements. It offers new interpretations of the influence of Finnish immigration on Canada.
Contributor Notes
Michel S. Beaulieu is the chair and an associate professor in the Department of History at Lakehead University and an associate of the L.R. Wilson Institute for Canadian History at McMaster University. His recent publications are The Little Third Reich on Lake Superior: A History of Canadian Internment Camp R (2015), Celluloid Dreams: An Illustrated History of Early Film at the Lakehead, 1900–31 (2012), and Labour at the Lakehead: Ethnicity, Socialism and Politics, 1900-35 (2011). Among other awards, he has received the Northwestern Ontario Visionary Award (2016), the M. Elizabeth Arthur Award (2015), the Gertrude H. Dyke Award (2015), and the City of Thunder Bay Heritage Award (2011).
David K. Ratz is a doctoral candidate at the University of Oulu, Finland, and teaches in the Department of History at Lakehead University. His various publications explore the military history of northwestern Ontario and various aspects of Finnish Canadian history.
Ronald N. Harpelle is a professor in the Department of History at Lakehead University. His publications include Language and Power: A Linguistic Regime for North America (2013), Pulp Friction: Communities and the Forest Industry in a Globalized World (2012), Le CRDI: quarante ans de recherche pour le développement (2011), and Long-Term Solutions for a Short-Term World: Canada and Research for Development (2011). Ronald is also an award-winning filmmaker whose documentaries focus on history, development issues, and human rights.
Editorial Reviews
This clever selection of diverse and intriguing aspects of the Finnish-Canadian culture and experience adds a valuable, specifically Finnish chapter to the larger history of immigration to Canada.
— Manitoba History Journal, Issue 88
The book’s greatest successes come in painting a complex history of Finnish-Canadian life, one that highlights the diversity of Finnish immigrants’ experiences.
— Labour/Le Travail
Hard Work Conquers All is a successful piece of work that will hopefully maintain support for further scholarship on Canadian Finns in the future… This book is definitely one of the most remarkable publications in 2018 in the area of historical Finnish experience in North America.
— Historiallinen Aikakauskirja 1
