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Ramsey County History Fall 2024

John W. Diers, Jim McCartney, Adam Bledsoe

Ramsey County History Fall 2024 Volume 59, No. 4: Fall 2024 John W. Diers, Jim McCartney, Adam Bledsoe Link to download PDF of full Ramsey County History Fall 2024   Articles in this issue: Growing Up on the Empire Builder Author: John W. Diers John W. Diers’…

Growing Up on the Empire Builder

John W. Diers

Photography by Hedrick-Blessing PR By John W. Diers To see this complete magazine article with endnotes and additional images, please view the PDF version. John Diers’ article is reprinted with permission from the publishers of TRAINS magazine, with minimal style adaptations. The original first-person story titled, “A night on…

Communist Clarence Hathaway and His Powerful Impact on Minnesota Politics

Jim McCartney

The Communist Party played an influential role in Farmer-Labor Party politics in the 1930s and early ’40s, thanks, in part, to relationships that Minnesota-born Clarence Hathaway developed with Gov. Floyd B. Olson and Gov. Elmer Benson. Hathaway image in Minneapolis Newspaper Photograph Collection, courtesy of Hennepin County Library; Olson/Benson images…

The Everyday Activism of the North Central Voters League in St. Paul

Adam Bledsoe

North Central Voters League President Raymond Hill did not mince words when it came to addressing disparities in St. Paul’s Black community. The NCVL first met at the Gopher Elks Lodge at 559 Carroll Avenue before moving to a building on Iglehart. Photograph by Dwight Miller, in Minneapolis Star, December…

March of the Governors: Tim Pawlenty

Paul Nelson and Ken Peterson

Tim Pawlenty grew up in a family of South St. Paul Democrats but embraced Republicanism as a teenager. He was a hard worker and excellent student in public schools and at the University of Minnesota and the University of Minnesota Law School. He was hired by a prestigious Minneapolis law…

Honoring Minnesota History Scholars

National History Day 2024 Team Minnesota Sixty-four “Team Minnesota” history scholars competed at National History Day (NHD) at University of Maryland–College Park in June. Over nine months, students in grades six through twelve identified topics related to the theme, “Turning Points in History,” and created detailed research…

F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Composite Biography

Reviewed by Mark Taylor

F. Scott Fitzgerald: A Composite Biography Niklas Salmose and David Rennie, editors Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2024 448 pages; cloth/jacket, 78 b&w photos, $29.95   Author F. Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece The Great Gatsby is still selling 500,000 copies a year,…

Twin Cities Snapshots: History Through the Lens of the St. Paul Pioneer Press

Reviewed by Steve Trimble

Twin Cities Snapshots: History Through the Lens of the St. Paul Pioneer Press St. Paul Pioneer Press, with Nick Woltman and Molly Ballis Vancouver, WA: Pediment Publishing, 2023 160 pages; hardcover, 250 b&w and color illustrations, $39.95 In April 2024, St. Paul’s Pioneer Press marked its…

Spirits Dancing: The Night Sky, Indigenous Knowledge, & Living Connections to the Cosmos

Reviewed by Meredith Cummings

Spirits Dancing: The Night Sky, Indigenous Knowledge, & Living Connections to the Cosmos Photography by Travis Novitsky; Text by Annette S. Lee St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2023 154 pages; paperback, 117 color illustrations, $19.95   “. .