The Minnesota Book of Days is a entertaining and educational day-by-day account of Minnesota history, chronicling important events, famous firsts, notable individuals, and interesting incidents.<br /><br />Tony Greiner's thorough research and keen sense of the offbeat combine to produce a book that is both serious history and unexpected fun, a perfect gift and a handy compendium. Did you know that the mercury sank below freezing on the Fourth of July in 1859? Or that on August 18, 1929, a 350-pound bear wandered into the lounge of the Hotel Duluth? Or that on October 8, 1956, the world's first fully enclosed shopping mall, Southdale Shopping Center, opened in Edina?<br /><br />This handy guide explores famous and not-so-famous aspects of Minnesota's history in lively entries for each day of the year. Whether you're a visitor or a lifelong resident, these tidbits about noteworthy events and people just might inspire you to explore Minnesota history in greater depth.
In this provocative book, sixteen of Minnesota's best writers provide a range of perspectives on what it is like to live as a person of color in Minnesota. They give readers a splendid gift: the gift of touching another human being's inner reality, behind masks and veils and politeness. They bring us generously into experiences that we must understand if we are to come together in real relationships.<br /><br />Minnesota communities struggle with some of the nation's worst racial disparities. As its authors confront and consider the realities that lie beneath the numbers, this book provides an important tool to those who want to be part of closing those gaps.<br /><br />With contributions by:<br /><br />Taiyon J. Coleman, Heid E. Erdrich, Venessa Fuentes, Shannon Gibney, David Grant, Carolyn Holbrook, IBé, Andrea Jenkins, Robert Karimi, JaeRan Kim, Sherry Quan Lee, David Mura, Bao Phi, Rodrigo Sanchez-Chavarria, Diane Wilson, and Kao Kalia Yang
Two hundred years of Minnesota history spring to life in this lively and captivating collection of essays. The North Star State encompasses the wide range of Minnesota's unique past—from the Civil War to the World Wars, from frontier life to the age of technological innovation, from Dakota and Ojibwe history to the story of St. Paul's black sleeping-car porters, from lumber workers and truckers' strikes to the women's suffrage movement.<br /><br />In addition to investigative articles by the state's top historians, editor Anne Aby has assembled captivating first-person accounts from key moments in Minnesota history, including George Nelson's reminiscences of his years in the early nineteenth-century fur trade; the diary of Emily Goodridge Grey, an early African American settler; and Jasper N. Searles's letters home from the Battle of First Bull Run.
A rich Minnesota literary tradition is brought into the spotlight in this groundbreaking collection of incisive prose and powerful poetry by forty-three black writers who educate, inspire, and reveal the unabashed truth.<br /><br />Historically significant figures tell their stories, demonstrating how much and how little conditions have changed: Gordon Parks hitchhikes to Bemidji, Taylor Gordon describes his first day as a chauffeur in St. Paul, and Nellie Stone Johnson insists on escaping the farm for high school in Minneapolis. A profusion of modern voices—poet Tish Jones, playwright Kim Hines, and memoirist Frank Wilderson—reflect the dizzying, complex realities of the present.<br /><br />Showcasing the unique vision and reality of Minnesota's African American community from the Harlem renaissance through the civil rights movement, from the black power movement to the era of hip-hop and the time of America's first black president, this compelling anthology provides an explosion of artistic expression about what it means to be a Minnesotan.<br /><br />Contributors include: Davida Adedjouma, Louis Alemayehu, E.G. Bailey, Conrad Balfour, Lloyd Brown, Philip Bryant, Shá Cage, Laurie Carlos, Gabrielle Civil, Taiyon Coleman, Kyra Crawford-Calvert, Mary Moore Easter, Evelyn Fairbanks, Pamela R. Fletcher, Shannon Gibney, Taylor Gordon, David Grant, Craig Green, Libby Green, David Haynes, Kofi Bobby Hickman, Kim Hines, Carolyn Holbrook, Steven Holbrook, Kemet Imhotep, Andrea Jenkins, Nellie Stone Johnson, Tish Jones, Etheridge Knight, Arleta Little, Roy McBride, Gordon Parks, Alexs Pate, G.E. Patterson, Anthony Peyton Porter, Louis Porter II, J. Otis Powell‽, Rohan Preston, Ralph Remington, Angela Shannon, Susan J. Smith-Grier, Clarence White, and Frank B. Wilderson III.
The history of Norwegian settlement in the United States has often been told through the eyes of prominent men, while the women are imagined in the form of O. E. Rølvaag's fictionalized heroine Beret Holm, who made the best of life on the frontier but whose gaze seemed ever fixed on her long-lost home. The true picture is more complex. In an area spanning the Midwest and rural West and urban areas such as Seattle, Chicago, and Brooklyn, Norwegian American women found themselves in varied circumstances, ranging from factory worker to domestic, impoverished to leisured. Offering a comprehensive, interdisciplinary approach, Norwegian American Women: Migration, Communities, and Identities considers the stories of this immigrant group through a gendered lens.<br /><br />Nine noted scholars situate these women in the history, literature, politics, and culture of both their ancestral home and the new land, interpreting their multifarious lives and the communities they helped build. pieces on wide-ranging topics by Betty A. Bergland, Laurann Gilbertson, Karen v. Hansen, Lori Ann Lahlum, Ann M. Legreid, Odd S. Lovoll, Elisabeth Lønnå, David C. Mauk, and Ingrid K. Urberg are bookended by Elizabeth Jameson's lively foreword and Dina Tolfsby's detailed bibliography, comprising a collection that enlightens at the same time that it inspires further investigations into the lives of women in Norwegian America.
To early American immigrants, nineteenth-century newcomers from the Scandinavian peninsula likely seemed all of a type. to immigrants hailing from Norway and Sweden, however, differences in language, culture, and religion sorted them into distinct groupings: not Scandinavian, but Norwegian or Swedish—and proud of their lineage.<br /><br />How did these differences affect relationships in the new world? In what ways did Swedes and Norwegians preserve their cultures in the city and in rural areas? On what political subjects did they disagree—or perhaps agree? Did they build communities together or in opposition to each other? Where they were neighbors, were they also friends? In this groundbreaking volume, scholars from the United States, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark debate these issues and more, sharing perspectives on context, culture, conflict, and community.<br /><br />Essayists include Philip J. Anderson, Jennifer Attebery, H. Arnold Barton, Ulf Jonas Bj rk, Dag Blanck, Jørn Brøndal, Angela Falk, Mark Granquist, Per Olof Gr nberg, Ingeborg Kongslien, James p. Leary, Joy K. Lintelman, Odd S. Lovoll, David Mauk, Byron J. Nordstrom, Kurt W. Peterson, Harald Runblom, and Mark Safstrom.
"Each morning I would strike out for this temple of learning in the crisp autumn air . . . with a sense of purpose and the conviction that this was where I belonged."—Marilyn Stasio from "My Research Project"<br /><br />Inspired partly by Richard Altick's The Scholar Adventurers, the thirteen writers in Curiosity's Cats offer powerful arguments for the value of hands-on research, be it chasing documents, cracking mysteries, interviewing long-lost subjects, or visiting exotic and not-so-exotic locales.<br /><br />Alberto Martinez explains how diligence with dates can provide clues to unlock the most difficult historical puzzles. Jan Reid explores the difference between research for an epic novel and research to write the epic biography of a friend. Margot Livesey suspects that she continues to write novels simply to do the research. But every essay testifies to the fact that research is valuable not only because of the product that may result from it, but because the process itself fulfills a basic human need.<br /><br />Contributors include: Philip J. Anderson, Annette Kolodny, Theodore Kornweibel, Jr., Margot Livesey, Alberto Martínez, Bruce Joshua Miller, Katherine Hall Page, Jan Reid, Ali Selim, Marilyn Stasio, Ned Stuckey-French, Bruce White, and Steve Yates.<br /><br />"Research has always seemed a bit like homework to me. Whatever the topic, I feel like a naughty schoolboy who's cramming for an exam. What a relief to realize I am not alone. Through a variety of methods and circumstances, the writers in this fascinating collection demonstrate that research, like exploration, is challenging, maddening, frustrating, and exhausting. But like any great explorer (or naughty schoolboy), we know we cannot reach our goal without it, and the journey is often more rewarding than the destination." —Alan Cumming, actor and author<br /><br />?"In our age of the Twitter and the Internet, it's such a joy to see the art of the essay so alive and strong. Read this book and rediscover that real knowledge and connections still reside at the source: out in the field and inside the human condition." —Dan Buettner, National Geographic Fellow and New York Times best-selling author of The Blue Zones<br /><br />?"No book has better portrayed the intimate, sometimes exasperating relationship between writer and research. It's all here, and it's never dull—the thrill of the chase, the unexpected discoveries, the crushing setbacks, the exhilarating 'Aha!' moments. There's even a stray bookworm—yes, a real one—that literally wriggles off the page." —Patricia T. O'Conner, author of Woe Is I and, with Stewart Kellerman, Origins of the Specious: Myths and Misconceptions of the English Language.<br /><br />?"If you have ever sensed a marvelous story or a startling emotion hidden within a historic document, photo, artifact, or place, you'll find many kindred spirits in this inspiring book. It made me want to drop everything to set out on a grand intellectual adventure in the nearest archive." —Jack El-Hai, author of The Nazi and the Psychiatrist and Non-Stop: A Turbulent History of Northwest Airlines
A collection of Civil War–era letters written by Hans Christian Heg, who grew up in southeastern Norway, migrated to Wisconsin, and traveled to the gold fields of California and the mining camps of the West, only to return to the Badger State to lead a regiment of Scandinavian immigrants—the Fifteenth Wisconsin—in the Civil War. His achievements are well known among Norwegian-Americans but little known outside that circle. However, his life story typifies the processes of transition and service to his new country that have marked the lives of thousands of immigrants.<br /><br />The many personal accounts by the soldiers of the Fifteenth Wisconsin Regiment, penned in battlefield letters to family and friends, remain the most evocative and moving contributions, valuable primary source material to a wrenching national experience. These intimate narratives relate both the horrors of the conflict and the loyalty of the young men, many of them recent arrivals from Norway, to what they consistently refer to as "our new fatherland."<br /><br />The Civil War period is a dramatic watershed event in the adjustment of Norwegian-Americans to the challenges they encountered in America as they moved toward integration with a new society. The heroic roles played by the men of the Fifteenth Wisconsin Regiment remain lasting and treasured images in the iconography of the Norwegian-American experience.
July 19, 1918: The wounded were pouring into the four Hospitals of the town. . . . We have decided to double up for a few days—half of us work at the Canteen and half at the Hospitals, taking turns. It will be hard work for awhile but everyone feels that you can't work hard enough these days.<br /><br />In March 1918, twenty-six-year-old Alice O'Brien and three close friends set off from New York harbor, bound for wartime France. Unlike the soldiers aboard their ship, they were unpaid volunteers. As the daughter of a wealthy family, Alice had no need to work—no need to go to war. But she also drove her own car, was trained as an auto mechanic, spoke French, and had the passion and determination to contribute selflessly to the war effort.<br /><br />Alice and her friends joined hundreds of American women serving as nurses, clerks, drivers, and canteen workers for the Red Cross, Salvation Army, and other organizations. Her letters home, full of breezy gossip and telling detail, describe living conditions, attitudes and actions of French soldiers and civilians, and her own remarkable efforts near the front. Alice was brave and funny, proud and jingoistic, privileged and unassuming, and Alice made a difference in France.
The history of the Philippines is a long and complex one but the stories and reflections in Dark Days of Authoritarianism, from remarkable individuals who were willing to stake their lives for freedom, shed light on life under the martial law instituted by President Ferdinand Marcos from 1972 to 1981, and up to the peaceful popular uprising of 1986. This book not only covers the social, economic and political conditions across the country during martial law but also how those conditions affected ordinary people personally and spiritually. Many of the contributions illustrate the strength and determination of Philippine women to create a better society despite being met by great adversity and the importance of Christian faith for sustaining the lives of those who suffered and survived this tumultuous period. This book provides important lessons for a new generation facing the menace of authoritarianism today, wherever they are, to fight for democracy and resist any attempts to diminish people’s freedom.