The road to riches for the hero of this sweeping historical novel ends up being rockier than he initially expects. Norwegian immigrant Jonas Olsen arrives in late nineteenth-century Minneapolis with little money and less English. He quickly learns to reinvent himself--from laboring in sewer construction to building a successful dry goods business, from losing everything in a banking collapse to settling the Red River Valley. While an eminently likable character, Jonas can also be ruthless in his ambition to find success in America. The Rise of Jonas Olsen is at once an immigrant...
The road to riches for the hero of this sweeping historical novel ends up being rockier than he initially expects. Norwegian immigrant Jonas Olsen arr...
Seeking economic improvement or a fresh start, following family or news of a land of opportunity, Norwegians left their homeland for America in great numbers in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They settled in Pennsylvania and Illinois and moved on to Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, and the Dakotas, finding in the "preire" or "praerie" a promising and hospitable landscape and they wrote home about it.
From these letters some published in newspapers or newsletters, most found on family farms and in homes held for generation after generation comes a polyphonic history of...
Seeking economic improvement or a fresh start, following family or news of a land of opportunity, Norwegians left their homeland for America i...
The third volume of From American to Norway is the final book of collected letters written by Norwegian American immigrants from the years 1893 to 1914. During this time many Norwegians had left their homeland, traveled to America, and settled in the Midwest. The intended audience for letters home gradually transitioned from the expectation that letters were to be shared and published in local Norwegian communities to their recognition as a private form of communication.
The challenges and opportunities that immigrants faced are described in these letters. The funny, sad,...
The third volume of From American to Norway is the final book of collected letters written by Norwegian American immigrants from the years 1...
