Product Description

Beyond the Boundaries is a companion volume in many ways to Lankton's Cradle to Grave (OUP 1991). Both books deal with copper mining in the Keweenaw Peninsula of Upper Michigan. While Cradle to Grave was concerned with the rise and fall of the copper mining industry - its technology, business practices, and human work experience - Beyond the Boundaries covers a more limited time period, 1840-1875, in the same region, and focuses instead on everyday life. It is essentially a book about men, women, and children, and families - not just their workplace but their homes, stores, churches, schools, hospitals and other aspects of community life as well. It is essentially the story of "reluctant pioneers," who attempted to establish a decent measure of comfort, control, and security in what was in many ways a hostile environment.

Product Details

• Published on: 1997-11-13
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

Review
"The social history of the mining frontier should be written and researched as well as Larry Lankton's Beyond the Boundaries....The book is a treat to read and a worthy contribution to helping us understand frontier mining societies."--Mining History News
"To tell his story, the author has mined diaries, manuscripts, newspapers, and company records, as well as a wealth of other primary and secondary literature. What emerges is a richly textured story that Lankton recounts with authority and gusto. It is a book that will interest local historians and those whose focus is social or western history."--Labor History
"With clarity, precision, and sound scholarship, Lankton examines everyday life on the Keweenaw frontier from 1840-1875, the years of growing pains for the infant copper industry...Lankton describes with vivid detail the tedious day of a hard rock miner...Beyond the Boundaries is local history at its best. Lankton has provided a scholarly look at early life on the copper range in Michigan amid the transformation of a wilderness. The net of topics is widely thrown, but Lankton articulates everyday life based on the facts and with eloquent interpretation...Beyond the Boundaries belongs on the shelf of every library in Michigan next to its copy of Cradle to Grave."--Michigan Historical Review
"Conducting two decades of research, assisted by student projects, [Lankton] has delved extensively into diaries, company personnel files, and local government records to profile the human aspects of this mining region....The large amount of new historical material is arranged by category and well indexed. This is no ordinary anecdotal history....As an academic work it isrefreshingly unquantitative: the reader is not inundated....This broad-minded treatment of a major, now-dormant mining region should interest practicing economic geologists."--Economic Geology
"In this, his third book on the region, Larry Lankton examines the simultaneous development of Keweenaw mining and the attendant cultural and social institutions of the people who worked and lived there. What he describes is a world far removed from either civilization or the frontier....Lankton discusses a number of fascinating issues....By relying on primary sources and by covering a breadth of topics, the author demonstrates extensive knowledge of the history of the region, and uncovers a number interesting avenues of research for the Keweenaw district."--Journal of Economic History