Dawning of American Labor

A 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. In The Dawning of American Labor a 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 exploration, the 1877 strike forever cast a shadow across one of the most deeply rooted articles of national faith--the belief in American exceptionalism. What conditions produced the faith in a classless society? What went wrong? These questions lie at the heart of The Dawning of American Labor.

• Provides a concise, comprehensive, and completely up-to-date synthesis of the latest scholarship on the early development of industrialization in the United States

• Considers how working people reacted, both in the workplace and in their communities, as the nation's economy made its shift from an agrarian to an industrial base

• Includes a formal Bibliographical Essay--a handy tool for student research

• Works as a stand-alone text or an ideal supplement to core curricula in US History, US Labor, and 19th-Century America

Accessible introductory text for students in American history classes and beyond, The Dawning of American Labor is an excellent introduction to the history of labor in the United States for students and general readers of history alike.

Autorentext

Brian Greenberg, PhD Emeritus Professor Emeritus Jules Plangere Chair in American Social History.

Inhalt

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Prologue: American Exceptionalism and the Great Strike of 1877

Chapter 1: Artisans in the New Republic, 17871825

The Artisan Workplace

The Political Economy of Early America

The Early Transformation of the Workplace

Rural Manufactures

The Economy of Seaport Cities

Manual Labor In and Out of the City

Economic Change and the Demise of the Artisan Order

Celebrating the New Era

Chapter 2: Labor in the Age of Jackson, 18251843

The Geography of Industrialization

Cultural Response to Industrialization

Holding Onto the Familiar

Religion, the Revivalists, and the New Work Ethic

Radical Resistance to the New Industrial Order

Chapter 3: The Industrial Worker in Free Labor America

Lynn as a Microcosm

Not Just Lynn

Labor Reform and the Remaking of American Society

Immigrant Workers Confront Nativism

Black Workers in a White World

Trade Unions on the Move in the 1850s

Chapter 4: From the Civil War to the Panic of 1873

Labor and the War

The Great Lockout of 1866

Eight Hours for Labor, Eight for Recreation, and Eight for Rest

Building a National Organization

Epilogue: A Tradition of Labor Protest Persists

Bibliographical Essay

Index