Kohler's Company Town

About the Book

Built in 1916 as a model company town, Kohler, Wisconsin, exemplified how industrial change reshaped space, work, and community in the United States. Kathryn J. Oberdeck traces how today’s popular resort town evolved from the tensions arising from the nexus of corporate planning, worker action, and gendered class conflict.

Walter J. Kohler’s vision of a model industrial town collided with increasingly restive workers—women among them—who challenged the company over the meaning of community. The leaders of Kohler Village devised a plan for individual homes that met the global standards of domestic hygiene the company promoted. At the same time, workers, managers, and residents debated issues across intersecting social divisions during village development, bitter labor struggles, political battles, geographic changes, and shifts in the global market economy. Throughout, Oberdeck’s analysis illuminates the dynamism of space and spatial relationships by delving into how people create, contest, and redefine places through work, family life, and political struggle.

The surprising backstory of a Midwest institution, Kohler’s Company Town explores how working men and women shaped their village’s transformation while adapting to the wider world.

* Publication supported by a grant from the Winton U. Solberg US History Subvention Fund.