Uneasy allies : working for labor reform in nineteenth-century Boston / David A. Zonderman.

OldControl:muse9781613760550.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1830s/1870s -- Awakenings : the first cross-class labor reform organizations, 1832/1848 -- Keeping the flame alive : the enduring vision of antebellum labor reform, 1848/1865 -- Acts of commission : labor reformers, activists, and the levers of political power, 1865/1870 -- The generation of 1869 : two leagues, a bureau, and a party -- 1870s/1900 -- Piety and protest : labor reform, religion, and mass demonstrations, 1872/1898 -- Spaces, places, and headquarters : workers, reformers, and the search for common ground, 1879/1900 -- New models for a new century : labor reform and the origins of the progressive movement, 1891/1900.

Print version record.

Throughout the nineteenth century, working-class activists and middle-class reformers in Boston strived to build alliances in the campaign for labor reform. Though some of these organizations have been familiar to historians for more than a century, this is the first study to trace these cross-class groups from their origins in the early 1830s to the dawn of the Progressive Era. In addition to analyzing what motivated these workers and reformers to work together, David Zonderman examines the internal tactical debates and external political pressures that fractured them, even as new alliances were formed, and shows how these influences changed over time. He describes what workers and reformers learned about politics and social change within these complex and volatile alliances, and speculates as to whether those lessons have relevance for activists and reformers today.

"In this thoroughly researched and engagingly written study, we have the opportunity to see how communitarians, antislavery activists, shorter workday advocates, and those outraged by the exploitation of women and children attempted to cooperate with working-class organizations. This important work not only helps us understand the past but also think about the future of work, reform, and political strategies. --Ken Fones-Wolf, author of Glass Towns: Industry, Labor and Political Economy in Central Appalachia, 1890-1930s.

"By illuminating how laboring people and non-working class reformers joined together in nineteenth-century America to strive for social justice, David Zonderman throws valuable light on a topic that has too often received only intermittent and sidelong attention. The story is complex, but his analysis is cogent and persuasive. We will be referring to these pages for years to come. --Jonathan Prude, author of The Coming of the Industrial Order: Town and Factory Life in Rural Massachusetts, 1810-1860 --Book Jacket.

English.

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