| Advocating the Man: Masculinity, Organized Labor, and the Household in New York, 1800-1840 Contributor(s): Greenberg, Joshua (Author) |
|
 |
ISBN: 0231135424 ISBN-13: 9780231135429 Publisher: Columbia University Press OUR PRICE: $79.20 Product Type: Hardcover Published: January 2009 Annotation: Advocating the Man argues that working men's conceptions of household-based masculine obligations informed organized responses to the changing economy of early-nineteenth-century New York. Working men perceived numerous obstacles to their fulfillment of domestic responsibilities. Potential threats came in the form of financial institutions and policy and from the competition of other workers, such as recently employed women and African Americans. In response to such threats, working men organized the early labor movement, utilizing trade unions and labor parties to champion household-based masculinity and protect their roles as breadwinners and fathers. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | United States - General - Political Science | Labor & Industrial Relations - Social Science | Men's Studies |
| Dewey: 331.880 |
| LCCN: 2008041698 |
| Series: Gutenberg-e |
| Physical Information: 0.9" H x 6.1" W x 9.1" (1.30 lbs) 272 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Joshua R. Greenberg argues that working men's conceptions of household-based masculine obligations informed organized responses to the changing economy in early nineteenth-century New York City. Rather than a particularized class consciousness as the source of working men's identity, Greenberg claims that household issues and concerns guided workplace and political reactions to the new industrial economy. Although the contemporary breakdown of traditional artisanal households sometimes divided workers' domestic and occupational space, skilled journeymen did not ideologically, culturally, or politically experience a separate sphere of existence. As part of this household-based market engagement, working men perceived numerous obstacles to their ability to fulfill domestic responsibilities. Potential threats came in the form of financial institutions and policy, such as the power of monopolies and the proliferation of paper money. They also came in the form of competition from prison laborers and female and African American workers. In response to such threats, working men used trade unions and labor parties to champion household-based masculinity and protect their roles as breadwinners and fathers. Consulting a diverse range of sources, Greenberg demonstrates the critical relationship between the household, the workplace, and the nascent labor movement. By placing gender at the center of his examination, he challenges existing scholarship on working men and the market revolution of the early nineteenth century and critiques gender studies that envision journeymen as rowdy stereotypes. Instead, Greenberg treats these men primarily as domestic actors, relating their involvement in politics and the workplace to their household duties and obligations. |