New Lands, New Lives

Looking for a great READ on Scandinavians in the Pacific Northwest?

We have just the publication for you!
New Land, New Lives: Scandinavian Immigrants to the Pacific Northwest

by Janet E. Rasmussen


University Press of Washington 1993 0-295-97711-6 / 9780295977119 paperback 334 pages, 41 b&w photos, notes, bibliog New Land, New Lives captures the voices of Scandinavian men and women who crossed the Atlantic during the early decades of the 20th century and settled in the Pacific Northwest, after 1910. Based on oral history interviews with 45 Danes, Finns, Icelanders, Norwegians, and Swedes-more than half of them women-the book is illustrated with family photographs and also includes background information on Scandinavian culture and immigration.


Murray Morgan, with the Tacoma News Tribune said "Rasmussen's selections capture the textures and tones of ordinary life. They show how the cultures the immigrants had known in the Old World influenced their reaction to the New World and the way they influenced life in the Pacific Northwest. As Rasmussen notes, the stories 'affirm human experience as the stuff of which the fabric of history and culture is woven.' This is a fascinating book."

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Janet E. Rasmussen is now the pastor of First Mennonite Church in Urbana, Illinois. She accepted this position in May 2008 following the completion of her Master of Divinity degree in Theological Studies at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Indiana.


Janet grew up in Paxton, IL and graduated from the University of Illinois. She earned her PhD. from Harvard University in Scandinavian Studies and was vice president for academic affairs and profession of modern languages at Nebraska Wesleyan University, Lincoln. She has published widely on Scandinavian women writers and immigrant women. Just prior to her seminary work she provided start-up leadership for The Want Center for International Programs at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, WA.

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Luci Baker Johnson