This tale of two cities--Butte, Montana, and Chuquicamata, Chile--traces the relationship of capitalism and community across cultural, national, and geographic boundaries. Combining social history with ethnography, Janet Finn shows how the development of copper mining set in motion parallel processes involving distinctive constructions of community, class, and gender in the two widely separated but intimately related sites. While the rich veins of copper in the Rockies and the Andes flowed for the giant Anaconda Company, the miners and their families in both places struggled to make a life as...

Social workers today not only face competing claims concerning the rights and needs of children and youth, but they also confront contradictions between policy and practice. Social workers are expected to fight for the best interests of the child, even though financial support for children's welfare and education grows scarce. They are asked to save "children at risk," while, at the same time, they are urged to protect communities from "risky children"; and they are encouraged to "leave no child behind," while also implementing "zero tolerance" policies to keep educational environments free...

Mining Childhood offers a fresh perspective on Montana history. Drawing from a broad range of archival materials and oral histories, the book offers a child's-eye view of key events in Butte's history and considers how social, political, and economic forces shaping life in Butte left their marks on children. With its rich stories, the book captures children's experiences of school, play, and work by exploring their joys and miseries, their keen impressions of life in Butte, and the varied lessons learned. These stories illuminate the meaning and purpose of mining life in Butte: people came in...