Description
Book Synopsis The racialization of immigrant labor and the labor strife in the coal and textile communities in northeastern Pennsylvania appears to be an isolated incident in history. Rather this history can serve as a touchstone, connecting the history of the exploited laborers to today’s labor in the global economy. By drawing parallels between the past and present – for example, the coal mines of the nineteenth-century northeastern Pennsylvania and the sweatshops of the twenty-first century in Bangladesh – we can have difficult conversations about the past and advance our commitment to address social justice issues.
Trade Review “Highly recommended.” • Choice
“This is an important and insightful book that demonstrates how social injustice is perpetuated in the legacy of exploitation in the past and our failure to protect developing nations from the same fate in the present.” • Antiquity
“This is a magnificent book and deserves to be widely read. At a time when many people around the world are losing faith in politicians and American global leadership it illustrates how historical archaeology can connect past and present and reveals how the ‘slow violence’ of industrial capitalism has devastated landscapes and continues to blight the lives of transgenerational global communities.” • James Symonds, University of Amsterdam
Table of Contents List of Illustrations
Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1. The History of Race in the Anthracite Coal Region
Chapter 2. An Archaeology of Immigration, Race, and Poverty in the Anthracite Coal Region
Chapter 3. Historic Trauma: Health and Well-Being in Northeastern Pennsylvania
Chapter 4. Offshoring the Textile Industry and Tragedy
Chapter 5. Offshoring Mining Industries and Tragedy
Conclusion: Difficult Histories are a Reality in the Present
References
