Mikel B. Classen

Mikel B. Classen

Mikel B. Classen

Mikel B. Classen has been writing about northern Michigan in newspapers and magazines for over thirty-five years, creating feature articles about the life and culture of Michigan’s north country. He’s written about Upper Peninsula history, travel, outdoors, the environ­ment and many other subjects. A journalist, historian, photographer and author with a fascination of the world around him, he enjoys researching and writing about lost stories from the past. Currently he is Managing Editor of the U.P. Reader.

Classen makes his home in the oldest city in Michigan, historic Sault Ste. Marie. He is also a collector of out-of-print history books, historical photographs and prints of Upper Michigan. At Northern Michigan University, he studied English, history, journalism and photo­graphy. He lives with his wife, Mary L. Underwood, and his Labrador retriever, Gidget.

His book, Au Sable Point Lighthouse, Beacon on Lake Superior’s Shipwreck Coast, was published in 2014 and his book, Teddy Roosevelt and the Marquette Libel Trial, was published in 2015, Both by the History Press. He has two books of fiction called Lake Superior Tales, published by Modern History Press, and Journeys into the Macabre, published by NetBound Books.

To learn more about Mikel B. Classen and to see more of his work, go to his website at www.mikelclassen.com

U.P. Colony

978-1-61599-606-3
$12.95
The Story of Resource Exploitation in Upper Michigan -- Focus on Sault Sainte Marie Industries
In stock
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Product Details
UPC: 978-1-61599-606-3
Brand: Modern History Press
Binding: Paperback
Audiobook: Audible, ITunes
Edition: 1st
Author: Phil Bellfy
Pages: 80
Publication Date: 09/01/2020

In the 1980s, Phil Bellfy pondered the question: Why does Sault,Ontario, appear to be so prosperous, while the "Sault" on the American side has fallen into such a deplorable state? Could the answer be that the "American side" was little more than a "resource colony"-or to use the academic jargon of "Conflict and Change" Sociology-an "Internal Colony." In UP Colony, Bellfy revisits his graduate research to update us the state of the Sault.

The ultimate question: why has the U.P.'s vast wealth, nearly unrivaled in the whole of the United States, left the area with poverty nearly unrivaled in the whole of the United States? None of the conventional explanations from "distance to markets," to "too many people," to "disadvantageous production costs," have any credibility. Simply put: "Where did the $1.5 billion earned from copper mining, $1 billion from logging, and nearly $4 billion in iron ore go?"

To get to the bottom of these thorny questions, Bellfy looks at the possible economic pressures imposed by "external colonial powers." The pressure-points examined in this book include presence of a complimentary economy, lopsided investment in one sector, monopoly style management, disparity of living standards, a repressive conflict-resolution system, and the progressive growth of inequality over time.

In UP Colony, Dr. Bellfy has revisited his MA Thesis and brought this analysis up-to-date in conjunction with the Sault's Semisepticentennial-the 350th anniversary of its French founding in 1668.

From Ziibi press www.ZiibiPress.com

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