The Work Ethic in Industrial America 1850-1920 : Second Edition (Edition 2) (Paperback)

The Work Ethic in Industrial America is set in one of those critical moments of transition, the years between 1850 and 1920 when the machines of the modern industrial revolution transformed labor as men and women had traditionally known it. The new factories squeezed idleness out of the work day, accelerating the pace of labor and dramatically multiplying its material output. They brought the disciplinary strain in the work ethic, its call to constant busyness, out of the realm of moral abstractions and into nineteenth-century social reality. But in the process, the industrial transformation put other values invested in work under severe pressure. Ever-finer division of labor eroded skills and craft knowledge that had been a source of pride in the small shop and artisan economy. The new scale of industrial enterprise made it harder to envision that a free worker could hope to strike out, without a boss, on his own. This classic book redefined our understanding of the relationship among industrialism, work ethic, leisure, gender roles in society, and political rhetoric, and its lessons remain valuable in today’s volatile economic, social, and political times.