Common Labour: Workers and the Digging of North American Canals 1780-1860 (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780521102650)

This study of canal construction workers between 1780-1860 challenges labor history's focus on skilled craftsmen. Canalers were unskilled workers, often members of despised social groups such as Irish immigrants and African-American slaves. They worked twelve or more hours a day in all weather, exposed to diseases and job-related risks, going home at night to rude shanty towns. Their harsh lifestyles bred conflict that undercut worker unity but promoted battles with employers over workplace issues, and the state was increasingly drawn in to enforce industrial production. Lacking the power that skill brought, canalers had little control over their working conditions. Their experiences represent a different strand of the labor story.

Author: Peter Way
ISBN-10: 0521102650
ISBN-13: 9780521102650
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 03/12/2009
Pages: 328
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.06lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.73d