Description
Book SynopsisA concise history of labor and work in America from the birth of the Republic to the Industrial Age and beyond
From the days of Thomas Jefferson, Americans believed that they could sustain a capitalist industrial economy without the class conflict or negative socioeconomic consequences experienced in Europe. This dream came crashing down in 1877 when the Great Strike, one of the most militant labor disputes in US history, convulsed the nation's railroads. InThe Dawning of American Labora leading scholar of American labor history draws upon first-hand accounts and the latest scholarship to offer a fascinating look at how Americans perceived and adapted to the shift from a largely agrarian economy to one dominated by manufacturing.
For the generations following the Great Strike, the Labor Problem and the idea of class relations became a critical issue facing the nation. As Professor Greenberg makes clear in this lively, highly accessible historical explorat
Table of Contents
List of Figures / vii
Acknowledgments / ix
Prologue: American Exceptionalism and the Great Strike of 1877 / 1
Chapter One: Artisans in the New Republic, 1787–1825 / 11
The Artisan Workplace / 11
The Political Economy of Early America / 15
The Early Transformation of the Workplace / 26
Rural Manufactures / 28
The Economy of Seaport Cities / 38
Manual Labor In and Out of the City / 41
Economic Change and the Demise of the Artisan Order / 46
Celebrating the New Era / 55
Chapter Two: Labor in the Age of Jackson, 1825–1843 / 59
The Geography of Industrialization / 59
Cultural Response to Industrialization / 70
Holding onto the Familiar / 74
Religion, the Revivalists, and the New Work Ethic / 76
Radical Resistance to the New Industrial Order / 81
Chapter Three: The Industrial Worker in Free Labor America / 91
Lynn as a Microcosm / 91
Not Just Lynn / 96
Labor Reform and the Remaking of American Society / 103
Immigrant Workers Confront Nativism / 111
Black Workers in a White World / 115
Trade Unions on the Move in the 1850s / 121
Chapter Four: From the Civil War to the Panic of 1873 / 129
Labor and the War / 129
The Great Lockout of 1866 / 133
“Eight Hours for Work, Eight Hours for Rest, and Eight Hours for Recreation” / 137
Building a National Organization / 147
Epilogue: A Tradition of Labor Protest Persists / 159
Bibliographical Essay / 171
Index / 203
