The Longshoremen: Life on the Waterfront

These three, inter-related stories describe the lives of three generations of the McGowan family and their personal battles to make a living by working on the Boston waterfront. The common thread that runs through them is the challenges presented by the shape-up or pick-up system, a procedure that was archaic and rife with favoritism and was the sole determining factor whether you received a salary that day.

At a young age, Jim McGowan goes to work as a longshoreman not knowing one end of a...