Cradle to Grave: Life, Work, and Death at the Lake Superior Copper Mines |  | Author: Larry Lankton
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Category: Book
List Price: $39.95
Buy Used: $12.83
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Avg. Customer Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 4068126
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.8
Dimensions (in): 9.6 x 6.3 x 1.1
ISBN: 0195062639
Dewey Decimal Number: 338.76223430977499
EAN: 9780195062632
ASIN: 0195062639
Publication Date: March 7, 1991
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: Note: Front book cover has worn spot near spine. Couple of pages in book have very, very minor tear at top of page. Book ships in bubble wrap envelope and within 30 hours of order. Book contents in good condition...9128
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Product Description
Concentrating on technology, economics, labor, and social history, Cradle to Grave documents the full life cycle of one of America's great mineral ranges from the 1840s to the 1960s. Lankton examines the workers' world underground, but is equally concerned with the mining communities on the surface. For the first fifty years of development, these mining communities remained remarkably harmonious, even while new, large companies obliterated traditional forms of organization and work within the industry. By 1890, however, the Lake Superior copper industry of upper Michigan started facing many challenges, including strong economic competition and a declining profit margin; growing worker dissatisfaction with both living and working conditions; and erosion of the companies' hegemony in a district they once controlled. Lankton traces technological changes within the mines and provides a thorough investigation of mine accidents and safety. He then focuses on social and labor history, dealing especially with the issue of how company paternalism exerted social control over the work force. A social history of technology, Cradle to Grave will appeal to labor, social and business historians.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 From Italy to Calumet March 11, 2008
An Amazon search for my family's rare Italian surname turned up a brief mention in this book, and when I realized the reference was to my great great grandfather who immigrated to the Lake Superior Copper Mines in 1907 from near Turin, Italy, I decided to order it. Knowing little of the story of my ancestors, it helped paint a picture of what life was like in the years following their arrival in Keweenaw Peninsula. And for that I am grateful to Lankton.
My favorite parts of the book are those that provide social context to what life was like in the mining communities, as well as those passages on the struggle between labor and management. Imagining Italians, Finns, Austrians, Irish, Germans and Cornish workers "fresh off the boat" working, living, organizing side by side in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan 100-150 years ago is fascinating.
 balanced and broadly relevant portrayal of conflict in an American industry May 23, 2007
While tracing my ancestry back to Polish copper miners in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, I picked this book up simply to help me learn more about life in those times. Though I was looking for something lighter than this scholarly work, I was captivated nonetheless. The relevance of this work extends far beyond just copper mining, and describes conflict between labor and management on several fronts- finding balance between social welfare vs. social control; technological innovation vs. resistance to change, improved efficiency vs. diminishing resources, and the ultimate labor union vs. management showdown.
Without wholly casting management as a villain, this book uncovers some raw truths by delving into management correspondence. Everything's under a microscope- the management's fear of lawsuits from injured workers, resistance to conceding an eight hour work day, resistance to development of a railroad (a threat to facilitate striking?!), spying on suspected union activists, and surreptitious infiltration of the Finnish press to manipulate employee morale. At the same time, management is often portrayed for being humane- sparing jobs for the men with the largest families, providing decent housing for most employees, and giving back to the community during economic depressions. Lankton perhaps best acknowledges the double-edged sword of corporate paternalism in the closing chapter - "paternalism was not only a means of social welfare, but a means of social control, and the companies had no intentions whatsoever of sharing control with their men."
Unfortunately, we get much more of a glimpse of the internal conflicts of management rather than the day-to-day life of the miners, presumably because management correspondence is much better documented.
The only other criticism I have of this book, which is common to most other works of its type, is its often thoughtless avalanche of statistics. Lankton description of costs of mining equipment, wages, numbers of injuries and deaths, etc. isn't put into context by displaying overall rates and dollar figures adjusted by inflation. So the Quincy mining company spent $26,557 on rock-drill equipment in 1872-73... what does that mean in today's dollars? So what if "In 1906, men took 24,675 baths courtesy of their company"... how many is that per person? Some tables and charts would also help illustrate statistical trends, but there's not a one in this book.
But that doesn't even put a dent in the value of this sweeping review of technology in society.
Essential overview of "Copper Country" history. August 15, 2002
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I found this book tremendous in explaining why people first came to such a cold and snowy land and why there are all these rotting hulks of machines and buildings everywhere. My father and grandfathers worked in the iron mines of Michigan's Marquette Range, but on it there is much less physical evidence of the mining that occurred. Mr. Lankton's book is facinating in it's exploration of so many facets of life in the Copper Country and life's rise and fall when tied to one industry. I hope to find a book like this about the Marquette Iron Range.
Very readable and well-balanced October 9, 2001
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
Lankton's book is a welcome change from so many modern histories crammed with academic jargon. It is concise, easy to read, and chock-full of excellent primary source material. Lankton gives the reader a real feel for the place and period, and paints a balanced picture both of mine workers and management. All of the conflicting and complimentary motivations and incentives come out well, in one of the few works on American mine labor that look fairly at both sides and don't read like an IWW tract. Actually hard to put down - not something you can say often about a labor history book! Great work.Really gave me a feel for my Finnish ancestors, who worked the mines from turn of the century until the Big Strike. A great documentation of a period whose physical remnants are fast disappearing.
Students Perspective March 12, 2000
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
In my senior year at Michigan Tech, I was forced into the reality that I couldn't take only engineering and science class's. I reluctantly signed up for Mr. Lanktons class and subsequently read the course text, "Cradle to Grave". This book was outstanding in it's detail of the area during the mining boom and it's decline. It gives a great account of the miner and the miner's family. What it means to be "owned by the company store". To get all of these accounts was very interesting having done plenty of "exploration" in the Keweenaw on my own. In my professional life Larry's book has proven a valuble refrence for understanding the difficulties in introducing new technology into a heavy labor-intensive industry.
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