When the railroad stretched its steel rails across the American West in the 1870s, it opened up a vast expanse of territory. Agriculture quickly followed the railroads, making way for Kansas wheat and Colorado sugar beets and Washington apples. With this new agriculture came an unavoidable need for harvest workers. These were not the year-round hired hands but transients who would show up to harvest the crop and then leave when the work was finished. Variously called bindlestiffs, fruit tramps, hoboes, and bums, these men--and women and children--were vital to the creation of the West and its economy. Amazingly, it is an aspect of Western history that has never been told. In "Hoboes: Bindlestiffs, Fruit Tramps, and the Harvesting of the West," the award-winning historian Mark Wyman offers a detailed, deeply sympathetic portrait of the lives of these hoboes, as well as a fresh look at the settling and development of the American West.

From 17th-century French coureurs de bois to lumberjacks of the 19th century, Wisconsin s frontier era saw thousands arriving from Europe and other areas seeking wealth and opportunity. Indians mixed with these newcomers, sometimes helping and sometimes challenging them, often benefiting from their guns and other trade items. This captivating history reveals the conflicts, the defeats, the victories, and the way the future looked to Wisconsin s peoples at the beginning of the 20th century."

"Historians of migration will welcome Mark Wyman's new book on the elusive subject of persons who returned to Europe after coming to the United States. Other scholars have dealt with particular national groups . . . but Wyman is the first to treat . . . every major group . . . . Wyman explains returning to Europe as not just the fulfillment of original intentions but also the result of 'anger at bosses and clocks, nostalgia for waiting families, ' nativist resentment and heavy-handed Americanization programs, and a complex of other problems. . . . Wyman's 'nine broad conclusions' about the returnees deserve to be read by everyone concerned with international migration." Journal of American History"

"The most comprehensive and interpretive study of the mining industry available to historians...It is a book that will stand the test of time." (W. Turrentine Jackson, Technology and Culture). "Mark Wyman's sympathetic account of the Western metal miners includes graphic details of their bitter struggle for unpaid wages, for industrial safety legislation, for corporate liability in the event of mine accidents and for workmen's compensation...Throughout the book one finds the compassion and understanding that mark works in the best tradition of historical scholarship." (Milton Cantor, The Nation). "Wyman has looked at miners in the larger context of American industrialization during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In doing so, he has produced a stimulating, informative account of how this group of workingmen responded to changes in the work place brought on by changes in technology, corporate capitalism, and the shifting labor forces of the day." (James E. Fell, Jr., Pacific Northwest Quarterly). "Wyman's compassionate and thoughtful study is an important contribution to the social history of western mining. Hard Rock Epic is also a significant addition to the literature on the process of industrialization. It amply demonstrates that no group in the American West was so deeply affected by the Industrial Revolution as the hard rock miners." (Jeffrey K. Stine, The Midwest Review). "Hard Rock Epic is both a descriptive and analytical study of the impact of technology on the life of metalliferous miners of the West. It is thoroughly researched, drawing heavily upon primary sources and the most relevant recent scholarship concerning the hardrock men. The study is judicious and balanced...[and] fits well into the growing body of scholarship on Western metal mining. Historians of labor and the American West will find this volume instructive and definite contribution to their fields of study." (George C. Suggs, Jr., The American Historical Review).

"Wyman's book is the only one that comprehensively, and sensitively, depicts the plight of the postwar refugees in Western Europe." M. Mark Stolarik, University of Ottawa "This is a fascinating and very moving book." International Migration Review "Wyman has written a highly readable account of the movement of diverse ethnic and cultural groups of Europe's displaced persons, 1945-1951. An analysis of the social, economic, and political circumstances within which relocation, resettlement, and repatriation of millions of people occurred, this study is equally a study in diplomacy, in international relations, and in social history. . . . A vivid and compassionate recreation of the events and circumstances within which displaced persons found themselves, of the strategies and means by which people survived or did not, and an account of the major powers in response to an unprecedented human crisis mark this as an important book." Choice "Wyman interviewed some eighty DPs as well as employees of various agencies who served them; he cites a broad range of published primary sources, secondary sources, and some archival material. . . . This book presents a useful overview and should stimulate further research." Journal of American Ethnic History"