{"product_id":"race-on-the-line-venus-green-9780822325734","title":"Race on the Line: Gender, Labor, and Technology in the Bell System, 1880-1980","description":"\u003ci\u003eRace on the Line\u003c\/i\u003e is the first book to address the convergence of race, gender, and technology in the telephone industry. Venus Green-a former Bell System employee and current labor historian-presents a hundred year history of telephone operators and their work processes, from the invention of the telephone in 1876 to the period immediately before the break-up of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company in 1984. Green shows how, as technology changed from a manual process to a computerized one, sexual and racial stereotypes enabled management to manipulate both the workers and the workplace.\u003cbr\u003eMore than a simple story of the impact of technology, \u003ci\u003eRace on the Line\u003c\/i\u003e combines oral history, personal experience, and archival research to weave a complicated history of how skill is constructed and how its meanings change within a rapidly expanding industry. Green discusses how women faced an environment where male union leaders displayed economic as well as gender biases and where racism served as a persistent system of division. Separated into chronological sections, the study moves from the early years when the Bell company gave both male and female workers opportunities to advance; to the era of the \"white lady\" image of the company, when African American women were excluded from the industry and feminist working-class consciousness among white women was consequently inhibited; to the computer era, a time when black women had waged a successful struggle to integrate the telephone operating system but faced technological displacement and unrewarding work.\u003cbr\u003eAn important study of working-class American women during the twentieth century, this book will appeal to a wide audience, particularly students and scholars with interest in women's history, labor history, African American history, the history of technology, and business history.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Venus Green\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 082232573X\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780822325734\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Duke University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 05\/02\/2001\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 392\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.15lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.80d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 10\/01\/2001 pg. 353","brand":"Venus Green","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":43947348033791,"sku":"9780822325734","price":30.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/products\/img_7396f2fa-9e2f-4410-ae0d-e6b72b2e855f.jpg?v=1681518189","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/race-on-the-line-venus-green-9780822325734","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}