Graduation Semester and Year

2020

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in History

Department

History

First Advisor

Kenyon Zimmer

Abstract

Historical research on Finnish migration and Finnish-Americans has, until recently, been carried out by members of the Finnish-American community and as such has written out the role of Finnish-Americans in the radical labor movement, as well as their reactions to the Finnish Civil War. In some regards it could be argued that the Finnish Civil War was also fought in America, with newspapers used in battles instead of guns. Finnish-American workers’ response to the civil war, combined with Finnish-Americans’ involved in the nationalization process of Finland, illustrates the transnational nature of seemingly national events. To help create what Benedict Anderson calls the national “imagined community,” Finns abroad, through agents from Finland such as church representatives and traveling reporters, learned and accepted what it was to be Finnish. The international workers’ movement, meanwhile, led some Finnish-Americans to view themselves within a class framework that put them in opposition to the bourgeois Finnish nation-state. As the workers’ movement disintegrated and the industries Finns were heavily involved in, such as timber, began to falter, they passed away without instilling “Finnishness” into the next generation. It appeared, until quite recently, that their history had died with them.

Keywords

Transatlantic, Migration, Transnational

Disciplines

Arts and Humanities | History

Comments

Degree granted by The University of Texas at Arlington

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