The Work Ethic in Industrial America 1850-1920: Second EditionHow the rise of machines changed the way we think about work—and about success. The phrase “a strong work ethic” conjures images of hard-driving employees working diligently for long hours. But where did this ideal come from, and how has it been buffeted by changes in work itself? While seemingly rooted in America’s Puritan heritage, perceptions of work ethic have actually undergone multiple transformations over the centuries. And few eras saw a more radical shift than the American industrial age. Daniel T. Rodgers masterfully explores the ways in which the eclipse of small-scale workshops by mechanized production and mass consumption triggered far-reaching shifts in perceptions of labor, leisure, and personal success. He also shows how the new work culture permeated society, including literature, politics, the emerging feminist movement, and the labor movement. A staple of courses in the history of American labor and industrial society, Rodgers’s sharp analysis is as relevant as ever as twenty-first-century workers face another shift brought about by technology. The Work Ethic in Industrial America 1850–1920 is a classic with critical relevance in today’s volatile economic times. |
Contents
1 Work Ideals and the Industrial Invasion | 1 |
2 Hireling Laborers | 30 |
3 Mechanicalized Men | 65 |
4 Play Repose and Plenty | 94 |
Fables for Boys | 125 |
Industrial Workers and Their Labor | 153 |
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Common terms and phrases
Addams Alger American argued argument Atlantic Monthly Beecher Boston boys Bureau of Labor chap Chicago cooperative culture discipline E. L. Godkin economic economists eight-hour Eliot employees ethic factory faith first formula Gilman Godkin hand Harper and Brothers Harriet Beecher Stowe Henry Ward Henry Ward Beecher History idea ideals idleness industrial America industrial democracy industrial education industrial workers insisted Jacob Abbott Jane Addams John Josephine Shaw Lowell Journal leisure Louisa May Alcott machine Macmillan Magazine man’s manufacturers middle-class mills moral moralists movement National nineteenth nineteenth-century Northerners one’s Optic organized piecework political poverty production profit sharing Protestant Puritan question radical reform Report rhetoric Samuel Gompers Saturday Evening Post Scientific Management skilled social socialist society Stowe tale Taylor textile theme tion toil trade tramp turned twentieth century union virtually vols wage earners Washington Gladden wealth William woman women workingmen workshop Wright wrote York