From Slavery to the Cooperative Commonwealth: Labor and Republican Liberty in the Nineteenth Century (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781107663657)

This book reconstructs how a group of nineteenth-century labor reformers appropriated and radicalized the republican tradition. These "labor republicans" derived their definition of freedom from a long tradition of political theory dating back to the classical republics. In this tradition, to be free is to be independent of anyone else's will - to be dependent is to be a slave. Borrowing these ideas, labor republicans argued that wage laborers were unfree because of their abject dependence on their employers. Workers in a cooperative, on the other hand, were considered free because they equally and collectively controlled their work. Although these labor republicans are relatively unknown, this book details their unique, contemporary, and valuable perspective on both American history and the organization of the economy.

Author: Alex Gourevitch
ISBN-10: 1107663652
ISBN-13: 9781107663657
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 12/08/2014
Pages: 220
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.75lbs
Size: 8.90h x 5.90w x 0.80d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 06/01/2015