Upper Peninsula of Michigan: A History

by Russell M. Magnaghi

For the first time in over a century, a complete history of the U.P.—from prehistoric origins to the present—is available.
Drawing on oral histories, newspapers, census data, archives and libraries, Russell M. Magnaghi has written the seminal history of a very "special place" as seen through the eyes of the men and women who have lived here—the famous and not
so famous.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

214 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 6, 2017

About the author

Russell M. Magnaghi, award-winning historian of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, is the author of over a dozen books on the U.P. A graduate of the University of San Francisco and St. Louis University, Russell taught history for forty-five years at Northern Michigan University. He and his wife, Diane, reside in Marquette and Traverse City, Michigan.

Reviews

[J.M. Hushour · Rating 5 out of 5]

Since you can't beat a regional identity that not only relies heavily on a fine appreciation for beer and meats but also races outhouses, I style myself a future, or at the very least, a wanna-be Yooper.
A Yooper is someone of the U.P., that is, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, that curving talon of Wisconsin's arcing eastward at Canada. The U.P. can be aptly described as the ultimate outpost of the Lower 48 and rightly sees itself as Superior (get it?) to the rest of us.
This is an outstanding history of something long regarded as a fringe region and of little interest. That it's snowy, waterfall laden awesomeness is quietly left to its own devices makes it even more wondrous. Home to long-standing American Indian populations and with a long heritage of French exploration and what-not, the UP became one of the leading sources for copper during the 19th century (iron, too) and had its ups and downs with the fluctuations of those particular resources. Magnaghi digs deep into all this stuff, the AI bits are particularly commendable, and the early history of French interactions with the Ojibwa and other groups is awesome, as is the march towards statesdom and all the mining history.
If you aspire to Yooperdom this would a great place to start!

[Thomas Ray]

books by Magnaghi https://search.library.wisc.edu/searc...

[Dan McCollum · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a former student of Dr. Magnaghi (and one who still regrets not taking his History of the Upper Peninsula course! Luckily I got him for local and Marquette history), I was looking forward to this book. It didn't dissapoint. Dr. Magnaghi has spent much of his adult life studying the history of Michigan's Upper Peninsula and this book encapsulates that life long passion and quest. I would recommend this to anyone who wishes to learn more about this fascinating, yet criminally understudied, region.

[Rae Forssberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great Read

This book paints a detailed history of the UP, which I found to be both enjoyable and informative to read!

[Annika · Rating 5 out of 5]

An encyclopedic narrative of the history of the Upper Peninsula for a general audience. This would be a very useful reference work for anyone working in local history to own. I don't know how many people would want to read it cover to cover. Though I knew the broad strokes of UP history, there were so many small tidbits that I had never heard that fascinated me: Alan Lomax spent two-and-a-half months making folklore recordings in the UP, the President signed a removal order against Indigenous people in the UP but the Michigan legislature blocked it on the grounds that they could exploit them to grow food for miners, tourism in the area goes back to the 1830s, the Copper Country had more people on relief during the Depression per capita than any other region in the nation, and many more.