The West has always been a resource for the Finns. Scholars, artists and other professionals have sought contacts from Europe throughout the centuries. The Finnish experience in Western Europe and the New World is a story of migrant laborers, expatriates and specialists working abroad. But you don’t have to be born in Finland to be a Finn. The experiences of second-generation Finnish immigrants and their descendants open up new possibilities for understanding the relationship between Finland and the West. The Finnish passage westward has not always crossed national borders. Karelian evacuees headed west, as did young people from the Finnish countryside when opportunities to make a living in agriculture and forestry diminished in the post-war era. The legacy of these migrants is still visible in the suburbs of Finnish cities today. This book is a joint effort of the Department of Ethnology and the Department of History at the University of Helsinki. It was written by Ph. D. students supervised by Academy Research Fellows Maria Lähteenmäki and Hanna Snellman, in collaboration with colleagues abroad interested in current research in ethnology and history.

This 8-week interdisciplinary unit for fourth- and fifth-grade students helps children address the U.S. westward expansion in the 1840's using the interactive software program, The Oregon Trail. The unit provides connections to literature, geography, computer/mathematics skills, language arts, and research skills. The work is done in cooperative groups over the course of the unit with a variety of assessment strategies suggested. Worksheets, handouts, and student materials are included. Upon completion of the unit students will be able to: (1) locate and identify the states along the Oregon Trail; (2) identify reasons for westward expansion; (3) gain a basic understanding of some of the native North American culture; (4) participate in collaborative group activities; and (5) demonstrate knowledge of life in the 1840s--food, clothing, families, etc. Selected bibliography contains 32 items. (EH)

Exploding the curious myth that the ocean is a barrier rather than a highway for communication, this unusual interdisciplinary study examines the English Atlantic context of early American life. From the winterless Caribbean to the ice-locked Hudson Bay, maritime communications in fact usually met the legitimate expectations for frequency, speed, and safety, while increased shipping, new postal services, and newspapers hastened the exchange of news. These changes in avenues of communications reflected--and, in turn, enhanced--the political, economic, and social integration of the English Atlantic between 1675 and 1740. As Steele deftly describes the influence of physical, technological, socioeconomic, and political aspects of seaborne communication on the community, he suggests an exciting new mode of analyzing Colonial history.

Provides sailing directions for Alaska coast from Yakutat Bay to Arctic Ocean. Contains descriptions of general character of coast, weather, tides, harbors and ports, government maritime services, medical relief, navigation aids, reporting of dangers procedure in case of distress, radio, weather reports, distress and emergency radio traffic, medical advice by radio, radio beacons, and radio direction finder stations.