Radicals of the Worst Sort

Laboring Women in Lawrence, Massachusetts, 1860-1912
Author: Ardis Cameron
How working-class women set the tone for labor action in the textile industry
Paper – $28
978-0-252-06318-3
Publication Date
Paperback: 01/01/1995
Buy the Book Request Desk/Examination Copy Request Review Copy Request Rights or Permissions Request Alternate Format Preview

About the Book

Ardis Cameron focuses on the textile workers' strikes of 1882 and 1912 in this examination of class and gender formation as drawn from the experience and language of the working-class neighborhoods of Lawrence, Massachusetts. Using the neighborhood perspective to explore the role of women in worker militancy, Cameron reveals the importance of female networks and organizational life in working-class culture and politics. Unionized women were labeled "radicals of the worst sort" because, in fighting for equality, they also rebelled against traditional economic and sexual hierarchies. Oral histories and detailed maps illuminate the setting and the dramatic story behind the famous Bread and Roses strike of 1912.

About the Author

Ardis Cameron is a professor of American and New England studies at the University of Southern Maine. She is the author of Unbuttoning America: A Biography of Peyton Place and editor of Looking for America: The Visual Production of Nation and People.

Reviews


Blurbs

"Will be greeted as a major contribution to a rich and rapidly expanding area of research on working women."--Thomas Dublin, author of Women at Work: The Transformation of Work and Community in Lowell, Massachusetts, 1826-1860