In Mining Childhood, Janet L. Finn unearths the vibrant, complicated, and often overlooked histories of children growing up in one of America’s most iconic industrial towns. Set against the backdrop of Butte, Montana—known for its bustling copper mines and its resilient immigrant communities—this deeply researched and richly narrated book offers an intimate portrait of childhood in the first half of the 20th century.

Drawing from oral histories, archival photographs, and personal stories, Finn reveals how young people in Butte navigated family life, labor, play, education, and identity within a city shaped by both possibility and precarity. The book gives voice to children of miners, immigrants, union families, and working-class households—illuminating how childhood was both forged and fractured by the forces of capitalism, community, and resistance.

Mining Childhood is at once a love letter to a place, a meditation on memory, and a powerful account of how the experiences of children reflect and shape broader social and economic realities. Whether you have roots in Butte or are simply drawn to histories of childhood, labor, and justice, this book offers a compelling and compassionate look at what it meant to grow up in America’s “Richest Hill on Earth.”