Our Own Time: A History of American Labor and the Working DayOur Own Time retells the story of American labor by focusing on the politics of time and the movements for a shorter working day. It argues that the length of the working day has been the central issue for the American labor movement during its most vigorous periods of activity, uniting workers along lines of craft, gender and ethnicity. The authors hold that the workweek is likely again to take on increased significance as workers face the choice between a society based on free time and one based on alienated work and unemployment. |
Contents
| 19 | |
| 43 | |
| 65 | |
| 81 | |
Victory Defeat and New Alliances 18671879 | 101 |
Haymarket and Its Context | 123 |
The Rightward Drift of the AFL and the Temporary Decline | 145 |
The Working Day | 177 |
Trade Unionism Hours and Workers Control in the | 209 |
The Great Depression the New Deal and Shorter Hours | 243 |
The Hours Stalemate since 1939 | 257 |
Notes | 279 |
Bibliographical Essay | 365 |
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Common terms and phrases
action activity advocates agitation American arguments August bill Boston called campaign changes Chicago City committee Commons and Associates continued convention craft Daily David December demand Documentary History early efforts eight eight-hour day employers England Equality especially example factory federal five-day followed Foner force Ford Gompers held History House important included increase Industrial issue January John July June Knights Labor Movement later leaders League legislation leisure less Lowell major manufacturing March mass Massachusetts Mechanics meeting Michigan mills Montgomery November October operatives organization party passed percent period Philadelphia political president Press production protest Radical reduction reform Report Republican Review September shorter hours skilled Social Socialist Society standard steel Steward strike struggles ten-hour ten-hour day textile tion trade union United University wages week women workers York
Popular passages
Page 200 - The far-reaching result of upholding the act cannot be more plainly indicated than by pointing out that if Congress can thus regulate matters entrusted to local authority by prohibition of the movement of commodities in interstate commerce, all freedom of commerce will be at an end, and the power of the States over local matters may be eliminated, and thus our system of government be practically destroyed.
Page 82 - In the United States of North America, every independent movement of the workers was paralyzed so long as slavery disfigured a part of the Republic. Labor cannot emancipate itself in the white skin where in the black it is branded. But out of the death of slavery a new life at once arose. The first fruit of the Civil War was the eight hours...
Page 139 - We mean to make things over; we're tired of toil for naught, But bare enough to live on, never an hour for thought. We want to feel the sunshine, we want to smell the flowers; We're sure that God has willed it, and we mean to have eight hours. We're summoning our forces from the shipyard, shop and mill — Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, eight hours for what we will.
Page 267 - ... unless there is on file with the Board an affidavit executed contemporaneously or within the preceding twelvemonth period by each officer of such labor organization and the officers of any national or international labor organization of which it is an affiliate or constituent unit...
Page 126 - The reduction of the hours of labor to eight per day, so that the laborers may have more time for social enjoyment and intellectual improvement, and be enabled to reap the advantages conferred by the labor-saving machinery which their brains have created.
Page 192 - ... want, is not in shape to do his day's work. He is anxious and worried, and it all reacts to the detriment of his work. But if a man feels that his day's work is not only supplying his basic need, but is also giving him a margin of comfort and enabling him to give his boys and girls their opportunity and his wife some pleasure in life, then his job looks good to him and he is free to give it of his best.
Page 144 - Now, these are my ideas. They constitute a part of myself. I cannot divest myself of them, nor would I, if I could. And if you think that you can crush out these ideas that are gaining ground more and more every day; if you think you can crush them out by sending us to the gallows; if you would once more have people suffer the penalty of death because they have dared to tell the truth — and I defy you to show...
References to this book
The Time Divide: Work, Family, and Gender Inequality Jerry A. Jacobs,Kathleen Gerson Limited preview - 2004 |
Creating a New World Economy: Forces of Change and Plans for Action Gerald Epstein No preview available - 2009 |