Varkaus and Its People - A Hundred Years is a work which reveals the great changes that have taken place in Finnish society. The problems of industrialisation, the bloody weeks of the Civil War, the stories of survival during economic slumps, the tragic years of the Second World War, the toil of rebuilding the country and the consequences of globalisation - the repercussions of all these at all the local level emerge from these pages.

This book is a sociological interpretation of the changes that took place in the twentieth century. Using the methods of historical sociology, the writer connects the local with the national and the international. The book is essential reading for all who are interested in questions of locality irrespective of where they live in the world.