The Citizen in His Relation to the Industrial Situation Yale Lectures [O.E. Rolvaag's copy] Hardcover - 1902

New York, NY: Scribners , 1902. First Edition. Hardcover. Good. First edition, 1902. SIGNED on front endpaper "Prof. O. E. Rolvaag". With occasional marginal marks in pencil throughout. Rölvaag was twenty-two when he began classes, spoke little English, and had not been in a classroom in years. But being around books again inspired him, and he soon became an excellent student. After graduating from Augustana Academy in 1901, Rölvaag enrolled at St. Olaf College. He supported himself and paid for his education by working in a kitchen, delivering wood for heating stoves, and painting buildings on campus.To earn extra money during summers, Rölvaag went on teaching assignments to work with immigrants in Nebraska and Wyoming. Following graduation from St. Olaf, he was offered a teaching position at the college on the condition that he first spend a year studying at the University of Christiania in Norway. His experience returning to Norway was enlightening. Rolvaag discovered that he and many other immigrants felt they did not fully belong in their new home or the one they had left behind. Meanwhile, the Episcopal Bishop Potter, was tackling labor issues in the US. In his writing, speaking, and acting Potter was "the champion of the working-man." Rolvaag returned to teach at St. Olaf in 1906 where he taught to the end of his life in 1931. His novels and politics expressed the experience of the immigrant.