Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Tobias Higbie's
Labor's Mind: A History of Working-Class Intellectual Life is a slim volume with an expansive reach. . . . It suggests that education, formal or informal, can spark radical social change. . . . Higbie's book is profoundly optimistic, if subtly so." --
American Historical Review"
Labor's Mind places working people's ideas and intellect--not just their quotidian lives and labor--at the center of historical study. Higbie has given us a rich portrait of working men and women thinking as the United States emerged as a global industrial power, a portrait they richly deserve." --
North Carolina Historical Review"A major contribution to the history of American working people's thought and movement-building in the modern era. Brophy would be pleased." --
Journal of American History"Recommended." --
Choice"
Labor's Mind cogently demonstrates how democratic education plays a key role in improving the daily and future lives of working people." --
H-Net Review"Higbie's book helps us understand people like Williams, Mills, and Keylor. They--and the men and women featured in his book--belong to a long and continuing tradition among working-class people. Such folks fascinate me and, if you read this book, they will come to fascinate you as well." --
Society for US Intellectual History"Higbie productively tackles the ambiguity of class position. Labor is of many minds, and with Higbie's helpful start, scholars must now move on to examine the character of the labor mind in its diverse and changing formations." --
International Review of Social History"
Labor's Mind serves to remind us of the rich and neglected intellectual life of the American working class." --
Journal of American Culture "
Labor's Mind places working people's ideas and intellect--not just their quotidian lives and labor--at the center of historical study. Higbie has given us a rich portrait of working men and women thinking as the United States emerged as a global industrial power, a portrait they richly deserve." --
North Carolina Historical Review "Higbie makes the point that, contrary to widespread prejudices about working class intelligence, laborers were not blank slates. They often brought an enthusiasm, a determination to rise above injurious labels, and a sense of adventure. A valuable addition to a still under-researched topic."--Laura Hapke, author of
Labor's Canvas: American Working-Class History and the WPA Art of the 1930s
