Life And Labor: Dimensions Of American Working-class History (suny Series In American Labor History)

Life and Labor brings together the most stimulating scholarship in the field of labor history today. Its fifteen essays explore the impact of industrialization and technology on the lives of working people and their responses to the changes in society over the past one-hundred-fifty years. Focusing on the everyday life of working-class Americans, it discusses such topics as production technology, occupational mobility, industrial violence, working women, resistance to exploitation, fraternal organizations, and social and leisure-time activities.The essays are written in a lively manner accessible to an undergraduate audience and also provide insights and a solid background for graduate students and scholars in the field of American labor and social history. The book presents the work of members of the generation of labor and social historians who matured in the 1970s and who are now establishing themselves as leaders in their fields.Charles Stephenson is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Central Connecticut State University. Robert Asher is Associate Professor at The University of Connecticut, Storrs. This collection of essays presents an integrated historical picture of the American working class. Family traditions, fraternal organizations, leisure activities, gender relations and experiences of black and women workers are the issues examined. The essays challenge existing interpretations of history and attempt to transcend the debate between the "old" and "new" labor history. Through the use of case studies, the authors demonstrate that trends such as bureaucratization, technological innovation, union organization, and social mobility, involve contradictory social processes rooted in the everyday experiences of workers and managers. ISBN 0-88706-172-9 (pbk.): $12.95