Between Craft and Class

Skilled Workers and Factory Politics in the United States and Britain, 1890-1922

Jeffrey Haydu

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Year: 2023
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9780520314160
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

Between Craft and Class provides an incisive new look at workers' responses to the momentous economic changes surrounding them in the early years of the twentieth century. In this work, Haydu focuses on the reaction of skilled metal workers to new production methods that threatened time-honored craft traditions. He finds that the workers' responses to industrial change varied—some defended the status quo, while others agreed to trade customary rules for economic rewards. Under some conditions class protest arose, as workers of diverse skills and trades joined to demand a greater voice in the management of industry. Between Craft and Class explores how broadly based movements for workers' control developed during this critical period, and why they ultimately failed. Comparing workers in the United States and Britain, Haydu's scholarship is distinguished by extensive primary source research and provocative theoretical insights. In its scope and depth, this book will revise current notions of craft politics and working-class radicalism during this period.

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Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Chapter One Factory Politics and Selective Mobilization
• Chapter Two The Employers’ Challenge to Craft Standards
• Chapter Three In Defense of the Trade:
• Chapter Four The Transformation of Craft
• Chapter Five The Impact of World War I
• Chapter Six Coventry: Workers’ Control and Industrial Relations Reform
• Chapter Seven Bridgeport: Craft Radicalism and Management Control
• Chapter Eight Patterns of Factory Politics in Comparative Perspective
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index