Women at Work: The Transformation of Work and Community in Lowell, Massachusetts, 1826-1860

by Thomas Dublin

Overview

In this prize-winning study, Thomas Dublin explores, in carefully researched detail, the lives and experiences of the first generation of American women to face the demands of industrial capitalism. Dublin describes and traces the strong community awareness of these women from Lowell and relates it to labor protest movements of the 1830s and '40s.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231041676
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	04/22/1981
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x (d)
Lexile:	1420L (what's this?)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Thomas Dublin is professor of history at the State University of New York, Binghamton. He has edited two colections, Farm to Factory, Second Edition and Immigrant Voices and authored Transforming Women's Work: New England Lives in the Ninteenth Century.

Table of Contents

Tables
Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgements
1. Women Workers and Early Industrialization
2. The Early Textile Idustry and the Rise of Lowell
3. The Lowell Work Force, 1836, and the Social Origins of Women Workers
4. The Social Relations of Production in the Early Mills
5. The Boardinghouse
6. The Early Strikes: The 1830s
7. The Ten Hour Movement: The 1840s
8. The Transformation of Lowell, 1836-1850, and the New NMill Work Force
9. Immigrants in the Mills, 1850-1860
10. Housing and Families of Women Operatives
11. Careers of Operatives, 1836-1860
12. The Operatives' Response, 1850-1860
Appendixes
1. Preparation of the Hamilton Company Payroll, 1836
2. The Social Origins Study
3. The Hamilton Company Work Force, August 1850 and June 1860
4. The 1860 Millhand Sample
5. Sources of Bias and Considerations of Representativeness

Editorial Reviews

Of the many books of Lowell's operatives, only Dublin's perceives the indissoluble relationship of consciousness and material reality. He has explored this history with better judgment and more sensitivity toward the common life of Lowell's female labor force than any other scholar of our day.

The National

Given the many vantage points from which the Lowell experience can be viewed, it is doubtful that any one study can be 'definitive,' but Dublin has made long strides toward that goal. His lucid presentation and analysis of evidence make Women at Work a model of social history.

Yale Review