(The American History Series) 1st Edition
by Brian Greenberg (Author)
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.
