Eleanor Gordon
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198201434
- eISBN:
- 9780191674884
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198201434.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, Social History
This is a study of working women in Scotland in the period 1850–1914. In a scholarly analysis, based on a wide range of contemporary sources, the book uncovers the patterns of women's employment, ...
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This is a study of working women in Scotland in the period 1850–1914. In a scholarly analysis, based on a wide range of contemporary sources, the book uncovers the patterns of women's employment, their involvement in and relationship to trade unionism, and the forms of their workplace resistance and struggles. Focusing particularly on women working in Dundee's jute industry, the study integrates labour history and the history of gender. It is a thorough account, which challenges many assumptions about the organizational apathy of women workers and about the inevitable division between workplace and domestic ideologies. It makes a contribution to current historiographical debates over the sexual division of labour, working-class consciousness, and domestic ideologies, and to the history of women in Scotland.Less
This is a study of working women in Scotland in the period 1850–1914. In a scholarly analysis, based on a wide range of contemporary sources, the book uncovers the patterns of women's employment, their involvement in and relationship to trade unionism, and the forms of their workplace resistance and struggles. Focusing particularly on women working in Dundee's jute industry, the study integrates labour history and the history of gender. It is a thorough account, which challenges many assumptions about the organizational apathy of women workers and about the inevitable division between workplace and domestic ideologies. It makes a contribution to current historiographical debates over the sexual division of labour, working-class consciousness, and domestic ideologies, and to the history of women in Scotland.
Stefan Berger
- Published in print:
- 1994
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198205005
- eISBN:
- 9780191676451
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205005.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter explains the objective of this book, which is to provide a historical comparison of the British Labour Party and the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) during the period from 1900 to ...
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This chapter explains the objective of this book, which is to provide a historical comparison of the British Labour Party and the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) during the period from 1900 to 1931. This book explains the methods of comparison and discusses arguments about the essential differences between the British and the German labour movement. It also explains the potential pitfalls of conducting comparative historical studies of nation-states.Less
This chapter explains the objective of this book, which is to provide a historical comparison of the British Labour Party and the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) during the period from 1900 to 1931. This book explains the methods of comparison and discusses arguments about the essential differences between the British and the German labour movement. It also explains the potential pitfalls of conducting comparative historical studies of nation-states.
Jocelyn Olcott
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199731633
- eISBN:
- 9780199894420
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199731633.003.0015
- Subject:
- History, World Early Modern History
Transnational labor history—and labor history more generally—has focused overwhelmingly on commodified labor, but the vast majority of the labor performed by women historically has been ...
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Transnational labor history—and labor history more generally—has focused overwhelmingly on commodified labor, but the vast majority of the labor performed by women historically has been uncommodified. Most of this labor falls under the rubric of reproductive labor, the “caring” work that generally includes child care, housekeeping, food provision (often including subsistence agricultural production), and the maintenance of critical community networks. This chapter examines debates at the 1975 United Nations International Women's Year Conference, where policy makers and activists alike agreed that these labors remained the most imposing obstacle to women's emancipation. In the end, however, the Marxist and liberal perspectives that dominated the conference focused almost entirely on how to incorporate women into the “productive life” of commodified labor, failing to address the more challenging problem of alleviating women's reproductive-labor burden.Less
Transnational labor history—and labor history more generally—has focused overwhelmingly on commodified labor, but the vast majority of the labor performed by women historically has been uncommodified. Most of this labor falls under the rubric of reproductive labor, the “caring” work that generally includes child care, housekeeping, food provision (often including subsistence agricultural production), and the maintenance of critical community networks. This chapter examines debates at the 1975 United Nations International Women's Year Conference, where policy makers and activists alike agreed that these labors remained the most imposing obstacle to women's emancipation. In the end, however, the Marxist and liberal perspectives that dominated the conference focused almost entirely on how to incorporate women into the “productive life” of commodified labor, failing to address the more challenging problem of alleviating women's reproductive-labor burden.
Kay Dickinson
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195326635
- eISBN:
- 9780199851676
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195326635.003.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Popular
This chapter criticizes the film and music combination in the motion picture Harum Scarum which starred Elvis Presley. It mentions critics' opinion that this is the worst movie in which Presley ever ...
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This chapter criticizes the film and music combination in the motion picture Harum Scarum which starred Elvis Presley. It mentions critics' opinion that this is the worst movie in which Presley ever starred. It discusses the plot of the film and attempts to locate the film's icon within the paradigms of labor history. It suggests that there is a strong but underresearched connection between the public treatment of media industry synergies that run aground and much broader anxieties about how we have earned our livings over the past fifty or so years.Less
This chapter criticizes the film and music combination in the motion picture Harum Scarum which starred Elvis Presley. It mentions critics' opinion that this is the worst movie in which Presley ever starred. It discusses the plot of the film and attempts to locate the film's icon within the paradigms of labor history. It suggests that there is a strong but underresearched connection between the public treatment of media industry synergies that run aground and much broader anxieties about how we have earned our livings over the past fifty or so years.
Neville Kirk
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781786940094
- eISBN:
- 9781786944269
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781786940094.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Political History
Part One, comprising of two chapters, sets the particular case of Mann and Ross in its relevant transnational and, to a lesser extent, comparative and global contexts. Chapter One is methodological ...
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Part One, comprising of two chapters, sets the particular case of Mann and Ross in its relevant transnational and, to a lesser extent, comparative and global contexts. Chapter One is methodological and historiographical in character. It first traces the development of labour history. It then turns to consider the books key definitions and usages: transnationalism; globalisation; comparative history. This involves both a critical survey of the relevant literature and an explication of my approach and usage. The final section of the chapter explores the development, strengths and weaknesses and potential of transnational historyLess
Part One, comprising of two chapters, sets the particular case of Mann and Ross in its relevant transnational and, to a lesser extent, comparative and global contexts. Chapter One is methodological and historiographical in character. It first traces the development of labour history. It then turns to consider the books key definitions and usages: transnationalism; globalisation; comparative history. This involves both a critical survey of the relevant literature and an explication of my approach and usage. The final section of the chapter explores the development, strengths and weaknesses and potential of transnational history
Jordana Rosenberg
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199764266
- eISBN:
- 9780199895359
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199764266.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Literature, Religion and Society
Chapter Three builds on critical accounts of race and capitalism to argue for the influential force of colonial contexts on British moral philosophy. Though much transatlantic work has tracked the ...
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Chapter Three builds on critical accounts of race and capitalism to argue for the influential force of colonial contexts on British moral philosophy. Though much transatlantic work has tracked the impression that British political theory and philosophy made on colonial and Early American ideals, I invert this relation. In Chapter Three, I show that the racial dynamics of the colonies influenced the articulation of moral philosophy in striking ways, and I demonstrate the transatlantic, colonial, and racialized conditions of moral philosophy’s core concepts. Building on historian Robin Blackburn’s account of the role of plantation slavery in the development of capital accumulation in Britain, as well as on histories of labor alliances in the colonies, I show how moral philosophy reflects the role of New World slave and indentured labor in the processes of accumulation that laid the basis for the Industrial Revolution.Less
Chapter Three builds on critical accounts of race and capitalism to argue for the influential force of colonial contexts on British moral philosophy. Though much transatlantic work has tracked the impression that British political theory and philosophy made on colonial and Early American ideals, I invert this relation. In Chapter Three, I show that the racial dynamics of the colonies influenced the articulation of moral philosophy in striking ways, and I demonstrate the transatlantic, colonial, and racialized conditions of moral philosophy’s core concepts. Building on historian Robin Blackburn’s account of the role of plantation slavery in the development of capital accumulation in Britain, as well as on histories of labor alliances in the colonies, I show how moral philosophy reflects the role of New World slave and indentured labor in the processes of accumulation that laid the basis for the Industrial Revolution.
Eleanor Gordon
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198201434
- eISBN:
- 9780191674884
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198201434.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, Social History
The Introduction provides an overview of the issues covered in the book: working women in Scotland in the period 1850–1914. The issues covered include the pattern of women employment, their ...
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The Introduction provides an overview of the issues covered in the book: working women in Scotland in the period 1850–1914. The issues covered include the pattern of women employment, their involvement in and relationship to trade unionism, and forms of their workplace resistance and struggles. The study is part of the wider project of redressing the balance of labour history which has so far ignored the history of working women. The Victorian formulation of the ideology of domesticity emphasized the division of the world into a private and a public sphere, which corresponded to the division between home and work.Less
The Introduction provides an overview of the issues covered in the book: working women in Scotland in the period 1850–1914. The issues covered include the pattern of women employment, their involvement in and relationship to trade unionism, and forms of their workplace resistance and struggles. The study is part of the wider project of redressing the balance of labour history which has so far ignored the history of working women. The Victorian formulation of the ideology of domesticity emphasized the division of the world into a private and a public sphere, which corresponded to the division between home and work.
Matthew Hild and Keri Leigh Merritt (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780813056975
- eISBN:
- 9780813053752
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813056975.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
Reconsidering Southern Labor History: Race, Class, and Power presents fresh and original scholarship that reexamines and reinterprets the field. The first collection of essays on southern labor ...
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Reconsidering Southern Labor History: Race, Class, and Power presents fresh and original scholarship that reexamines and reinterprets the field. The first collection of essays on southern labor history in six years, its broad chronological sweep distinguishes it from all of the collections that have appeared during the last forty years. Collectively, these essays cover virtually the entire span of United States history, from the early national period following the American Revolution through the twenty-first century. The essays that examine the antebellum South demonstrate that the problems of southern labor in that era still carry relevance in the twenty-first century and merit scholars’ attention. Furthermore, whereas the “new labor history” that was prevalent from the 1970s to the 1990s generally discouraged a focus upon institutional history (i.e., labor unions), the recent trend, as labor unions have gone into sharp decline in the United States in the last thirty-five years, has been to give unions and their importance more careful consideration while still maintaining focus on issues of class, race, gender, and the agency of individual workers. Many of these essays reflect this trend, as they bring unions or antebellum workingmen’s associations back into labor history without abandoning the methodologies and perspectives that were developed by new labor historians of previous generations.Less
Reconsidering Southern Labor History: Race, Class, and Power presents fresh and original scholarship that reexamines and reinterprets the field. The first collection of essays on southern labor history in six years, its broad chronological sweep distinguishes it from all of the collections that have appeared during the last forty years. Collectively, these essays cover virtually the entire span of United States history, from the early national period following the American Revolution through the twenty-first century. The essays that examine the antebellum South demonstrate that the problems of southern labor in that era still carry relevance in the twenty-first century and merit scholars’ attention. Furthermore, whereas the “new labor history” that was prevalent from the 1970s to the 1990s generally discouraged a focus upon institutional history (i.e., labor unions), the recent trend, as labor unions have gone into sharp decline in the United States in the last thirty-five years, has been to give unions and their importance more careful consideration while still maintaining focus on issues of class, race, gender, and the agency of individual workers. Many of these essays reflect this trend, as they bring unions or antebellum workingmen’s associations back into labor history without abandoning the methodologies and perspectives that were developed by new labor historians of previous generations.
Greg Patmore and Shelton Stromquist (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780252041839
- eISBN:
- 9780252050503
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252041839.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Economic History
Australia and the United States have long been recognized as fertile fields for comparative history. Both the United States and the Australian colonies were “frontier societies” with considerable ...
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Australia and the United States have long been recognized as fertile fields for comparative history. Both the United States and the Australian colonies were “frontier societies” with considerable natural resources and without a feudal heritage. Despite their similarities, the histories of Australia and the United States are also marked by striking divergences, notably in the composition of their working classes, their labor relations, and their politics. The essays in this volume break new ground in comparative and transnational history. Together they offer considerable evidence to support the general proposition that despite similarities in the development of their economies and in fabric of their democratic institutions, the labor histories of Australia and the United States manifest notable differences. The essays in this volume make significant contributions to understanding the comparative aspects of Australian and US labor history in five areas specifically. They examine the divergent impact of the Great War on the fortunes of labor and socialist movements, the history of coerced labor, patterns of ethnic and class identification, the forms of working-class collective action and institution building, and struggles over trade union democracy and the viability of independent working-class politics. Additionally, several essays explore the ways in which radical labor and political activists from both countries developed transnational ties that cross-fertilized their respective trade union and political cultures.Less
Australia and the United States have long been recognized as fertile fields for comparative history. Both the United States and the Australian colonies were “frontier societies” with considerable natural resources and without a feudal heritage. Despite their similarities, the histories of Australia and the United States are also marked by striking divergences, notably in the composition of their working classes, their labor relations, and their politics. The essays in this volume break new ground in comparative and transnational history. Together they offer considerable evidence to support the general proposition that despite similarities in the development of their economies and in fabric of their democratic institutions, the labor histories of Australia and the United States manifest notable differences. The essays in this volume make significant contributions to understanding the comparative aspects of Australian and US labor history in five areas specifically. They examine the divergent impact of the Great War on the fortunes of labor and socialist movements, the history of coerced labor, patterns of ethnic and class identification, the forms of working-class collective action and institution building, and struggles over trade union democracy and the viability of independent working-class politics. Additionally, several essays explore the ways in which radical labor and political activists from both countries developed transnational ties that cross-fertilized their respective trade union and political cultures.
Jennifer Sherer
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252040498
- eISBN:
- 9780252098932
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252040498.003.0013
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Movements and Social Change
In this chapter, the author presents an approach to teaching labor history drawn from her experience as an educator at the University of Iowa Labor Center. In particular, she focuses on the Iowa ...
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In this chapter, the author presents an approach to teaching labor history drawn from her experience as an educator at the University of Iowa Labor Center. In particular, she focuses on the Iowa Labor History Oral Project, initiated by the Iowa Federation of Labor in the 1970s to document the experiences of workers across the state. Workers encountering these oral histories in classrooms or union halls not only learn about Iowa's labor history, but they also gain a clearer view of the contemporary workplace and organizing challenges they face; this process subordinates narrative and historical context to stimulate activism in the present and future by drawing on commonalities between present and past. The author chronicles the history and educational ambitions of the project, highlighting the creative ways in which the Labor Center harnesses this resource in educational outreach to workers. She shows that oral histories work well as an educational tool because they bring the personal and emotional experiences of workers to the surface, enabling participants to relate to one another and to labor's history.Less
In this chapter, the author presents an approach to teaching labor history drawn from her experience as an educator at the University of Iowa Labor Center. In particular, she focuses on the Iowa Labor History Oral Project, initiated by the Iowa Federation of Labor in the 1970s to document the experiences of workers across the state. Workers encountering these oral histories in classrooms or union halls not only learn about Iowa's labor history, but they also gain a clearer view of the contemporary workplace and organizing challenges they face; this process subordinates narrative and historical context to stimulate activism in the present and future by drawing on commonalities between present and past. The author chronicles the history and educational ambitions of the project, highlighting the creative ways in which the Labor Center harnesses this resource in educational outreach to workers. She shows that oral histories work well as an educational tool because they bring the personal and emotional experiences of workers to the surface, enabling participants to relate to one another and to labor's history.
Jana Lipman
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520255395
- eISBN:
- 9780520942370
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520255395.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
Guantánamo has become a symbol of what has gone wrong in the War on Terror. Yet Guantánamo is more than a U.S. naval base and prison in Cuba, it is a town, and our military occupation there has ...
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Guantánamo has become a symbol of what has gone wrong in the War on Terror. Yet Guantánamo is more than a U.S. naval base and prison in Cuba, it is a town, and our military occupation there has required more than soldiers and sailors—it has required workers. This revealing history of the women and men who worked on the U.S. naval base in Guantánamo Bay tells the story of U.S.-Cuban relations from a new perspective, and at the same time, shows how neocolonialism, empire, and revolution transformed the lives of everyday people. Drawing from rich oral histories and little-explored Cuban archives, the author analyzes how the Cold War and the Cuban revolution made the naval base a place devoid of law and accountability. The result is a narrative filled with danger, intrigue, and exploitation throughout the twentieth century. Opening a new window onto the history of U.S. imperialism in the Caribbean and labor history in the region, the book tells how events in Guantánamo and the base created an ominous precedent likely to inform the functioning of U.S. military bases around the world.Less
Guantánamo has become a symbol of what has gone wrong in the War on Terror. Yet Guantánamo is more than a U.S. naval base and prison in Cuba, it is a town, and our military occupation there has required more than soldiers and sailors—it has required workers. This revealing history of the women and men who worked on the U.S. naval base in Guantánamo Bay tells the story of U.S.-Cuban relations from a new perspective, and at the same time, shows how neocolonialism, empire, and revolution transformed the lives of everyday people. Drawing from rich oral histories and little-explored Cuban archives, the author analyzes how the Cold War and the Cuban revolution made the naval base a place devoid of law and accountability. The result is a narrative filled with danger, intrigue, and exploitation throughout the twentieth century. Opening a new window onto the history of U.S. imperialism in the Caribbean and labor history in the region, the book tells how events in Guantánamo and the base created an ominous precedent likely to inform the functioning of U.S. military bases around the world.
Michael P. Roller
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780813056081
- eISBN:
- 9780813053875
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813056081.001.0001
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Historical Archaeology
Using evidence of historical changes in landscape, community life, and material culture from a coal mining company town in the Anthracite Coal Region of Northeast Pennsylvania, Michael Roller ...
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Using evidence of historical changes in landscape, community life, and material culture from a coal mining company town in the Anthracite Coal Region of Northeast Pennsylvania, Michael Roller introduces an archaeological approach to the structural violence on workers, citizens, and consumers that developed across the twentieth century. The study begins with an analysis of a moment of explicit violence at the end of the nineteenth century, an event known as the Lattimer Massacre, in which as many as nineteen immigrant miners were shot by a posse of local businessmen. From this touchstone, material history and theoretical contexts across the twentieth century are documented in a manner both locally specific and broadly generalizable. Historical archaeology is used strategically, opportunistically, and dialectically, supported, amplified, and illuminated by archival and ethnographic research, spatial analysis, and social theory. In the process, attention is brought to contradictions, ironies, and absences in our understandings of this formative era in labor history. This study illuminates the development of systematized violence and soft forms of social control enacted by the collusion of state and capital through materialities such as infrastructure, urban redevelopment, mass consumerism, governmentality, biopolitics, and the shifting boundaries of sovereign power. Varied in its use of sources, the study returns again and again to the material life and the shifting landscapes of the company towns and shanty enclaves of the region, as well as the violence of the Massacre. This archaeology of the recent past shows us the unconscious material foundations for present social troubles.Less
Using evidence of historical changes in landscape, community life, and material culture from a coal mining company town in the Anthracite Coal Region of Northeast Pennsylvania, Michael Roller introduces an archaeological approach to the structural violence on workers, citizens, and consumers that developed across the twentieth century. The study begins with an analysis of a moment of explicit violence at the end of the nineteenth century, an event known as the Lattimer Massacre, in which as many as nineteen immigrant miners were shot by a posse of local businessmen. From this touchstone, material history and theoretical contexts across the twentieth century are documented in a manner both locally specific and broadly generalizable. Historical archaeology is used strategically, opportunistically, and dialectically, supported, amplified, and illuminated by archival and ethnographic research, spatial analysis, and social theory. In the process, attention is brought to contradictions, ironies, and absences in our understandings of this formative era in labor history. This study illuminates the development of systematized violence and soft forms of social control enacted by the collusion of state and capital through materialities such as infrastructure, urban redevelopment, mass consumerism, governmentality, biopolitics, and the shifting boundaries of sovereign power. Varied in its use of sources, the study returns again and again to the material life and the shifting landscapes of the company towns and shanty enclaves of the region, as well as the violence of the Massacre. This archaeology of the recent past shows us the unconscious material foundations for present social troubles.
Vic Satzewich
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199731633
- eISBN:
- 9780199894420
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199731633.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, World Early Modern History
The past twenty years have seen a call for a new transnational perspective on migration and settlement, in that traditional approaches social scientists use to understand individuals who move and ...
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The past twenty years have seen a call for a new transnational perspective on migration and settlement, in that traditional approaches social scientists use to understand individuals who move and settle abroad are no longer suitable for an increasingly complex world; concepts like immigrant no longer suffice because they imply a permanence to migration that no longer exists. Others claim that nations and states no longer serve as adequate units of analysis. The concept of transnationalism is said to capture more accurately the central features of immigrant and ethnic community life. This chapter argues that significant aspects of the literature on transnationalism demand historical correction: An interdisciplinary dialogue might help us to historicize general hypotheses, creating a more nuanced understanding of workers' local, national, and transnational lives. A labor history that pays attention to both the local and the transnational can temper claims about the unprecedented nature of contemporary transnationalism, particularly as it relates to the understanding of immigrant lives. Furthermore, a renewed emphasis on immigrants as workers instead of simply carriers of certain transnational identities and practices can establish a more complete picture of the lives of those who cross national boundaries in search of work, business opportunities, and better lives.Less
The past twenty years have seen a call for a new transnational perspective on migration and settlement, in that traditional approaches social scientists use to understand individuals who move and settle abroad are no longer suitable for an increasingly complex world; concepts like immigrant no longer suffice because they imply a permanence to migration that no longer exists. Others claim that nations and states no longer serve as adequate units of analysis. The concept of transnationalism is said to capture more accurately the central features of immigrant and ethnic community life. This chapter argues that significant aspects of the literature on transnationalism demand historical correction: An interdisciplinary dialogue might help us to historicize general hypotheses, creating a more nuanced understanding of workers' local, national, and transnational lives. A labor history that pays attention to both the local and the transnational can temper claims about the unprecedented nature of contemporary transnationalism, particularly as it relates to the understanding of immigrant lives. Furthermore, a renewed emphasis on immigrants as workers instead of simply carriers of certain transnational identities and practices can establish a more complete picture of the lives of those who cross national boundaries in search of work, business opportunities, and better lives.
Shelton Stromquist
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252040498
- eISBN:
- 9780252098932
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252040498.003.0002
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Movements and Social Change
This chapter traces the history of the early paths of engaged scholarship blazed by progressive labor economists who, at some professional risk, gave birth to labor history as a serious field of ...
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This chapter traces the history of the early paths of engaged scholarship blazed by progressive labor economists who, at some professional risk, gave birth to labor history as a serious field of inquiry and by the subsequent pioneering work of two labor historians and activists: E. P. Thompson and David Montgomery. Thompson and Montgomery not only reshaped the academic field but influenced subsequent generations of engaged scholars. Of particular importance were Thompson's and Montgomery's experiences outside of academia, notably in labor and left political circles. The chapter points out that the generation of labor historians following Thompson and Montgomery shared their attention to class, their affinity for grassroots activism, and their advocacy for participatory democracy. At the same time, the succeeding generations of scholars, responding to changed political and intellectual contexts, have pursued new forms of engagement.Less
This chapter traces the history of the early paths of engaged scholarship blazed by progressive labor economists who, at some professional risk, gave birth to labor history as a serious field of inquiry and by the subsequent pioneering work of two labor historians and activists: E. P. Thompson and David Montgomery. Thompson and Montgomery not only reshaped the academic field but influenced subsequent generations of engaged scholars. Of particular importance were Thompson's and Montgomery's experiences outside of academia, notably in labor and left political circles. The chapter points out that the generation of labor historians following Thompson and Montgomery shared their attention to class, their affinity for grassroots activism, and their advocacy for participatory democracy. At the same time, the succeeding generations of scholars, responding to changed political and intellectual contexts, have pursued new forms of engagement.
Jesse Adams Stein
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781784994341
- eISBN:
- 9781526121158
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781784994341.003.0001
- Subject:
- Art, Design
This introductory chapter first establishes the disciplinary spectrum within which Hot Metal operates. It outlines how recent studies of design and material culture have focused less on production ...
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This introductory chapter first establishes the disciplinary spectrum within which Hot Metal operates. It outlines how recent studies of design and material culture have focused less on production and labour, and more on consumption, interpretation and professional design, and examines the place of material culture in labour history. The Introduction opens the path to demonstrating a more effective way to interweave studies of working life, labour and design, while retaining the voices of the workers (through oral history), without aestheticising or sentimentalising labour experience. The chapter also introduces Sydney’s Government Printing Office as a rich and revealing case study that holds valuable lessons for those examining the cultural and social impacts of deindustrialisation in late capitalist economies. Finally, the Introduction sets the economic and political scene in Sydney between the 1960s and the 1980s: important background for understanding the changes that the print-workers experienced.Less
This introductory chapter first establishes the disciplinary spectrum within which Hot Metal operates. It outlines how recent studies of design and material culture have focused less on production and labour, and more on consumption, interpretation and professional design, and examines the place of material culture in labour history. The Introduction opens the path to demonstrating a more effective way to interweave studies of working life, labour and design, while retaining the voices of the workers (through oral history), without aestheticising or sentimentalising labour experience. The chapter also introduces Sydney’s Government Printing Office as a rich and revealing case study that holds valuable lessons for those examining the cultural and social impacts of deindustrialisation in late capitalist economies. Finally, the Introduction sets the economic and political scene in Sydney between the 1960s and the 1980s: important background for understanding the changes that the print-workers experienced.
Paul A. Shackel
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780252041990
- eISBN:
- 9780252050732
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252041990.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, Economic History
The memorialization of Lattimer began immediately after the trial, and the UMWA claimed the martyrs as their own. Several early attempts to commemorate the event and erect a monument failed, and by ...
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The memorialization of Lattimer began immediately after the trial, and the UMWA claimed the martyrs as their own. Several early attempts to commemorate the event and erect a monument failed, and by World War I Lattimer faded from the national public memory. Citizens at the local level kept the story alive, and in 1972, union members and local stakeholders erected a monument at Lattimer. Labor organizers and politicians attended the seventy-fifth anniversary commemoration. Through the 1990s local religious leaders organized Roman Catholic Masses at the site on the massacre’s anniversary, and many of the clergy gave pro-labor, anti-neoliberal homilies. The local community and avocational historians have continued to debate the meaning of Lattimer and have focused on the event’s relationship to labor history versus ethnic history.Less
The memorialization of Lattimer began immediately after the trial, and the UMWA claimed the martyrs as their own. Several early attempts to commemorate the event and erect a monument failed, and by World War I Lattimer faded from the national public memory. Citizens at the local level kept the story alive, and in 1972, union members and local stakeholders erected a monument at Lattimer. Labor organizers and politicians attended the seventy-fifth anniversary commemoration. Through the 1990s local religious leaders organized Roman Catholic Masses at the site on the massacre’s anniversary, and many of the clergy gave pro-labor, anti-neoliberal homilies. The local community and avocational historians have continued to debate the meaning of Lattimer and have focused on the event’s relationship to labor history versus ethnic history.
Jesse Adams Stein
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781784994341
- eISBN:
- 9781526121158
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781784994341.001.0001
- Subject:
- Art, Design
With the increasing digitisation of almost every facet of human endeavour, concerns persist about ‘deskilling’ and precarious employment. The publishing industry has turned its energy to online and ...
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With the increasing digitisation of almost every facet of human endeavour, concerns persist about ‘deskilling’ and precarious employment. The publishing industry has turned its energy to online and electronic media, and jobs continue to disappear from printing, publishing and journalism. The replacement of human labour with computerised technologies is not merely a contemporary issue; it has an established history dating from the mid-twentieth century. What is often missing from this record is an understanding of how the world of work is tightly interwoven with the tangible and affective worlds of material culture and design, even in ‘clean’ computerised environments. Workplace culture is not only made up of socio-political relationships and dynamics. It is also bound up with a world of things, with and through which the social and gendered processes of workplace life are enacted and experienced. Understanding how we interact with and interpret design is crucial for appreciating the complexities of the labour experience, particularly at times of technological disruption. Hot Metal reveals integral labour-design relationships through an examination of three decades in the printing industry, between the 1960s and 1980s. This was the period when hot-metal typesetting and letterpress was in decline; the early years of the ‘digital switch’. Using oral histories from an intriguing case-study – a doggedly traditional Government Printing Office in Australia – this book provides an evocative rendering of design culture and embodied practice in a context that was, like many workplaces, not quite ‘up-to-date’ with technology. Hot Metal is also history of how digital technologies ruptured and transformed working life in manufacturing. Rather than focusing solely on ‘official’ labour, this book will introduce the reader to workers’ clandestine creative practices; the making of things ‘on the side’.Less
With the increasing digitisation of almost every facet of human endeavour, concerns persist about ‘deskilling’ and precarious employment. The publishing industry has turned its energy to online and electronic media, and jobs continue to disappear from printing, publishing and journalism. The replacement of human labour with computerised technologies is not merely a contemporary issue; it has an established history dating from the mid-twentieth century. What is often missing from this record is an understanding of how the world of work is tightly interwoven with the tangible and affective worlds of material culture and design, even in ‘clean’ computerised environments. Workplace culture is not only made up of socio-political relationships and dynamics. It is also bound up with a world of things, with and through which the social and gendered processes of workplace life are enacted and experienced. Understanding how we interact with and interpret design is crucial for appreciating the complexities of the labour experience, particularly at times of technological disruption. Hot Metal reveals integral labour-design relationships through an examination of three decades in the printing industry, between the 1960s and 1980s. This was the period when hot-metal typesetting and letterpress was in decline; the early years of the ‘digital switch’. Using oral histories from an intriguing case-study – a doggedly traditional Government Printing Office in Australia – this book provides an evocative rendering of design culture and embodied practice in a context that was, like many workplaces, not quite ‘up-to-date’ with technology. Hot Metal is also history of how digital technologies ruptured and transformed working life in manufacturing. Rather than focusing solely on ‘official’ labour, this book will introduce the reader to workers’ clandestine creative practices; the making of things ‘on the side’.
Geoffrey G. Field
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199604111
- eISBN:
- 9780191731686
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199604111.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, Political History
The introduction discusses recent historical debate about the significance of class analysis and outlines the chapter organization of the whole book.
The introduction discusses recent historical debate about the significance of class analysis and outlines the chapter organization of the whole book.
Mary E. Frederickson
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813036038
- eISBN:
- 9780813038469
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813036038.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter examines representations of southern women within labor history. For many generations, southern labor history focused on two primary groups of women: “heroines,” individual women who ...
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This chapter examines representations of southern women within labor history. For many generations, southern labor history focused on two primary groups of women: “heroines,” individual women who performed extraordinary feats, and “girl strikers,” women whose protests were both collective and public. These stereotypes framed popular and academic histories of southern women and the labor movement and resonated profoundly in southern culture. This chapter compares these mythical images with the reality of southern women's lives as workers and with their roles as labor activists. Challenging these enduring stereotypes helps expand one's historical understanding of the full range of southern women's involvement in the labor movement and other networks of dissent. Neither heroines nor girl strikers but conscious of that history, these women took their place in the union and saw their future and that of their children in the labor movement.Less
This chapter examines representations of southern women within labor history. For many generations, southern labor history focused on two primary groups of women: “heroines,” individual women who performed extraordinary feats, and “girl strikers,” women whose protests were both collective and public. These stereotypes framed popular and academic histories of southern women and the labor movement and resonated profoundly in southern culture. This chapter compares these mythical images with the reality of southern women's lives as workers and with their roles as labor activists. Challenging these enduring stereotypes helps expand one's historical understanding of the full range of southern women's involvement in the labor movement and other networks of dissent. Neither heroines nor girl strikers but conscious of that history, these women took their place in the union and saw their future and that of their children in the labor movement.
Alan Draper
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780813056975
- eISBN:
- 9780813053752
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813056975.003.0018
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter argues that the historiographies of the labor movement and civil rights movement have proceeded on similar tracks: national, organization histories have been succeeded by more local, ...
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This chapter argues that the historiographies of the labor movement and civil rights movement have proceeded on similar tracks: national, organization histories have been succeeded by more local, bottom-up approaches. This has simply replaced old orthodoxies with new ones. Second-generation labor history and civil rights history reflects the views of activists who were radicalized by their experiences and whose goals became more ambitious over time, as opposed to the views of ordinary workers and blacks that these historians claim to offer. This has led historians to adopt activists’ unrealistic standards in assessing the success of these movements as opposed to the more sober benchmarks that workers and blacks applied to measure the impact of these movements on their lives.Less
This chapter argues that the historiographies of the labor movement and civil rights movement have proceeded on similar tracks: national, organization histories have been succeeded by more local, bottom-up approaches. This has simply replaced old orthodoxies with new ones. Second-generation labor history and civil rights history reflects the views of activists who were radicalized by their experiences and whose goals became more ambitious over time, as opposed to the views of ordinary workers and blacks that these historians claim to offer. This has led historians to adopt activists’ unrealistic standards in assessing the success of these movements as opposed to the more sober benchmarks that workers and blacks applied to measure the impact of these movements on their lives.
