| Anaconda: Labor, Community, and Culture in Montana's Smelter City Contributor(s): Mercier, Laurie (Author) |
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ISBN: 0252069889 ISBN-13: 9780252069888 Publisher: University of Illinois Press OUR PRICE: $31.68 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: August 2001 Annotation: Laurie Mercier's hard-hitting study of "community unionism" examines the tenacity of union loyalty and communal values within the confines of a one-industry town: Anaconda, Montana, home to the world's largest copper smelter and the namesake of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company. Mercier depicts the vibrant life of the smelter city at full steam, documenting the early history of the town and the distinctive culture of cooperation and activism that residents fostered in the 1930s and 1940s. Ultimately, their solidarity and discontent with the company converged in the successful 1934 strike and sustained five decades of devoted unionism. During the cold war years, Anacondans held to their communal values and to the union in the face of antilabor and anticommunist pressures, embracing an "alternative Americanism" that championed improved living standards for working people, rather than unlimited corporate power, as the best defense against communism. Mercier chronicles the bitter struggle between two rival unions that undercut the town's labor solidarity in the postwar years. She also explores how gender definitions shaped the nature and outcome of labor struggles. Mercier carries her investigation through the closing of the smelter in 1980. Underscoring the role of the community in molding working-class consciousness, Anaconda offers important insights about the changing nature of working-class culture and the real potential for collective action under the midday sun of American industrial capitalism. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | United States - 20th Century - History | Social History |
| Dewey: 978.687 |
| LCCN: 00012583 |
| Series: Working Class in American History (Paperback) |
| Physical Information: 0.98" H x 6.38" W x 9.04" (1.20 lbs) 328 pages |
| Themes: - Geographic Orientation - Montana |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Laurie Mercier's look at "community unionism" examines the distinctive culture of cooperation and activism fostered by residents in Anaconda, Montana, home to the world's largest copper smelter and the namesake of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company. Mercier depicts the vibrant life of the smelter city at full steam, incorporating the candid commentary of the locals ("the company furnished three pair of leather gloves . . . and all the arsenic [dust] you could eat"). During five decades of devoted unionism, locals embraced an "alternative Americanism" that championed improved living standards for working people as the best defense against communism. Mercier also explores how gender limits on women's political, economic, and social roles shaped the nature and outcome of labor struggles, and traces how union rivalries, environmental concerns, and the 1980 closing of the Anaconda smelter transformed the town. A fascinating portrait of how community molds working class consciousness, Anaconda offers important insights about the changing nature of working class culture and collective action. |