- 344 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
About this book
A Quest for Time: The Reduction of Work in Britain and France, 1840-1940 provides a compelling historical analysis of the struggle for shorter working hours as a crucial aspect of labor movements in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The book challenges conventional labor historiography by shifting focus from traditional workplace struggles over wages and conditions to the broader social and political implications of time regulation. By examining Britain and France—two nations at the forefront of industrialization and labor reform—the study explores how the demand for reduced work hours was not merely a technical or economic issue, but rather a deeply political and social movement intertwined with concepts of citizenship, family life, and leisure.
Through extensive archival research and comparative analysis, the author traces the evolution of the short-hours movement, demonstrating its transnational character and highlighting the interplay between labor activism, state intervention, and broader social transformations. The book argues that the push for the eight-hour workday and other reductions in work time were central to labor's vision of a restructured society, where workers could reclaim control over their lives beyond the factory. By linking labor radicalism before World War I with the reformist labor politics of the interwar period, A Quest for Time provides a fresh perspective on the dynamics of labor reform, modernization, and the ever-evolving struggle to balance work and life in industrial societies.
This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1989.
Through extensive archival research and comparative analysis, the author traces the evolution of the short-hours movement, demonstrating its transnational character and highlighting the interplay between labor activism, state intervention, and broader social transformations. The book argues that the push for the eight-hour workday and other reductions in work time were central to labor's vision of a restructured society, where workers could reclaim control over their lives beyond the factory. By linking labor radicalism before World War I with the reformist labor politics of the interwar period, A Quest for Time provides a fresh perspective on the dynamics of labor reform, modernization, and the ever-evolving struggle to balance work and life in industrial societies.
This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1989.
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Yes, you can access A Quest for Time by Gary Cross in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & European History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title
- Copyright
- Contents
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- 1 A Question of Time
- 2 Policing Time: The Nineteenth-Century State and Working Hours
- 3 Challenging the Liberal Economy of Time, 1886-1912
- 4 Family Time and Consumption Time: Shop Hours and the Origins of the Weekend
- 5 Efficiency and Reform: Work Science, the State, and Time, 1890-1918
- 6 Labor Insurgency, International Reform, and the Origins of the Eight-Hour Day, 1917-1924
- 7 Worktime, Growth, and an International Labor Standard
- 8 Meanings of Free Time: Leisure and Class in the 1920s
- 9 Labor and Rationalization
- 10 The Right to Time in the Twentieth Century
- Appendix
- Notes
- Index