PUBLICATIONS
The following list of publications are related to some of the films we have been involved in making. Some of the publications are more directly linked to the films than others, but all offer additional information and can be read to supplement your understanding of the issues. Each of these books, except for Banana Stories which can be downloaded for free, can be found in bookstores, purchased online or borrowed from a library. If you liked the films, you'll love the books.
One of the most exciting new books from Aspasia Books, Inc. is Karelian Exodus, a collection of articles on the exodus to Karelia of Finnish Canadians and Finnish Americans in the 1930s, the reasons behind it, and the experiences in Karelia of those who left. Edited by Ron Harpelle, Varpu Lindstrom and Alexis Pogerelskin, Karelian Exodus explains how someone like Aate Pitkanen came to find himself writing his letters from a Finnish prison in Karelia.
The 13 Karelia Exodus articles were originally papers presented in March 2004 at an international conference held in Thunder Bay, Ontario. The conference dealt with Finnish communities in North America and Soviet Karelia during the Depression and it featured speakers from Russia, Finland, Sweden, the United States, and Canada.
Read more about this publication...
  What do you
know about bananas?
What do you really know about
this tropical favourite that does not squeak, squirt
or leak? What is the story behind the banana?
Do you know where bananas come from?
Do you know how many different kinds of bananas are out there? How do bananas get to market in
Europe and North America? Did you
know that the banana
plays a significant role
in the lives of
millions of people
all around the
world? If you do
not know the
answers, read on
and take a closer
look at the
historical, social,
scientific and
economic aspects of
the most popular fruit
in the world. Edited by Ron Harpelle, this short collection of articles is downloadable in English and in French for free on this site. Find out what bananas are all about. Read more about this publication...
The West Indians of Costa Rica: Race, Class, and the Integration of an Ethnic Minority
Want to know more about the history of the export banana industry and the people who created it? Ron Harpelle's The West Indians of Costa Rica: Race, Class, and the Integration of an Ethnic Minority is a detailed social history of an ethnic minority's adaptation to life in Central America during the first half of the twentieth century.
The Jamaicans, Barbadians, and other West Indians who migrated to Costa Rica at the turn of the twentieth century found themselves in a country that prides itself on its Spanish and "white settler" origins. In The West Indians of Costa Rica Ronald Harpelle examines the ways in which people of African descent reacted to key issues of community and cultural survival from 1900 to 1950. He shows that the men and women who ventured to Costa Rica in search of opportunities in the banana industry arrived as West Indian sojourners but became Afro-Costa Ricans. The West Indians of Costa Rica is a story about choices: who made them, when, how, and what the consequences were. Read more about this publication...
Edited by Michel Beaulieu and Ron Harpelle.
"Historians often have identified Susanna Moodie or Catherine Parr
Traill as advocates for women’s rights, but Beaulieu and Harpelle argue
emphatically that Mitchell’s contributions are equally important. Taken
as a whole, Lady Lumberjack is as entertaining as it is insightful. Dorothea
Mitchell was a gifted writer, her prose at times resembling that of Pulitzer
Prize winner Annie Proulx. In all likelihood readers will find themselves
missing Mitchell long after they have finished reading the book. This unassuming
woman captivates one with her humorous shenanigans while, at the same time,
astounding one with her no-nonsense approach to everyday matters typically
considered the liberty of men. Lady Lumberjack is a serious contribution to
women’s history, with huge potential to inform novice and seasoned academics
alike. Mitchell’s writings are ripe with examples of emerging ethnic
and racial tensions, national pride and shifting gender roles. Such broader
themes need only be teased from the pages. Beaulieu and Harpelle have ably
shown the
numbers ways in which Dorothea Mitchell stood as a symbol for all
that women could achieve."
Cheryl Desroches, Queen’s University
The Lady Lumberjack is a
complete collection of Dorothea Mitchell's work. It contains her book,
Lady Lumberjack, and several short articles about her time in Northwestern
Ontario during the 1910s and 20s. Dorothea Mitchell was a Canadian Pioneer
of the first order. She did things that pioneering women have always done,
but her pioneer experience was made more difficult by the fact that she was
a single woman. Unlike other unsung heroines of the early twentieth century,
we know of Dorothea's accomplishments because she wrote about them. This collection
serves to introduce Dorothea Mitchell as a a latter day Susanna Moodie or
Catherine Parr Traill. Read
more about this publication...
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