Research Catalog

Brass Valley : the story of working people's lives and struggles in an American industrial region

Title: Brass Valley : the story of working people's lives and struggles in an American industrial region / the Brass Workers History Project ; compiled and edited by Jeremy Brecher, Jerry Lombardi, and Jan Stackhouse.
Publication: Philadelphia : Temple University Press, 1982.

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Request for On-site Use Request Scan How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?	Text	Use in library	HD9539.B8 U538	Off-site

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Description

xvi, 284 pages : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

For too many years American workers have been cut off from their own roots. When children go to school, they learn little about the people who work in factories and offices, their movements and their efforts for a better life. What is hidden from them is their own legacy, the heritage of culture and struggle handed on from other generations of working people. This book represents a new approach to history. It attempts to pass on that history from one group of workers to other workers, especially as workers and unions are at a crossroads, facing deteriorating conditions and even the permanent loss of jobs. But workers have faced these problems before, and surmounted them. This book can help all understand that our collective history helps us to face the challenges of the present and ones yet unknown of tomorrow. -- Publisher description.

Subject

Genre/Form

Biography
Biographies
History
Interviews
Biographies.

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Contents

I. Prelude to the brass industry.
II. From the establishment of the brass industry to 1920: the era of the immigrant : -- English skilled workers: importing the Industrial Revolution -- The immigrant work force: "They leave the place of their birth and that's against their will" -- Families: "At night we'd sit around with our feet in the oven and we'd share" -- Social life: "You knew your next-door neighbor" -- The church: religious, educational, social -- Politics: "Workingman's mayor" and "King of the Bolsheviks" -- The brass production process: from casting shop to widget -- The brass business: "A visible employer" -- The laborers: bull work and buggy lugging, cramping and charging -- The skilled workers: "The shop would have to stop without them" -- De-skilling: the story of the casters -- Working conditions: maimed hands and spelter shakes -- Early worker organization: the Knights of Labor and the Lady Brass Workers of Waterbury -- The 1919 strike: "Spreading by contagion" -- The 1920 strike: "We had all combination of people."
III. 1920 to mid-century: the era of industrial unionism : -- After immigration: mingling and discrimination -- Homes: blocks and triple-deckers -- Families: "Saturday night was known as the fun night" -- Social life: societies and saloons -- Life in the Depression: "What am I going to do, take a piece of my house and eat it?" -- "Labor policy:" providing a docile labor force -- "Rationalization:" We took that control out of the operator's hands -- Time study and incentive systems: "They're always trying to increase production" -- Ethnicity and race at the work place: "A line drawn as to how far you could advance" -- Working women: "She used a micrometer just like a man" -- Conditions on the job: "When I whistle, I want you to come" -- The coming Industrial unionism: "We had a signal, just like Paul Revere" -- Union factionalism and secession: " If we hadn't had this type of a fight, we'd have been a hellofa power" -- The industrial unions at the acme of their power: "The process of brotherhood was exemplified, because there was a basic need."
IV. Mid-century to 1980: the era of brass industry decline : -- The newest immigrants: minority workers -- Housing and urban reorganization: from walking city to suburban America -- Social life: "They're all over God's creation today" -- Families: "Now it takes two, and you can't make it" -- Decline of the brass industry: "Then one day the factory closed up and we were all out of a job" -- Working conditions: "One man could run the whole machine himself" -- A changing work force: "They don't want to tote that barge and lift that bale anymore" -- The labor movement: "I see all the companies testing the unions."
V. In conclusion: "You get up against the wall and there's no further to go: you have to start fighting back. Right?"

ISBN

0877222711
9780877222712
087722272X
9780877222729

LCCN

82005770

OCLC

ocm08430919
8430919
SCSB-38673

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library