Working Class Experience
Rethinking the History of Canadian Labour, 1800-1991

Palmer, Bryan D.
Publisher:  McClelland & Stewart, Toronto, Canada
Year First Published:  {11231 Working Class Experience WORKING CLASS EXPERIENCE Rethinking the History of Canadian Labour, 1800-1991 Palmer, Bryan D. McClelland & Stewart Toronto Canada From nineteenth-century tavern life to late twentieth-century cinema, from rough canallers and the first stirrings of craft unionism to contemporary public-sector strikes, this books provides a sweeping interpretive study of the history of the Canadian working class since 1800. 1983 1992 455pp BC1760-WorkingClass.jpg B Book 0-7710-6945-6 Working Class Experience: Rethinking the History of Canadian Labour, 1800-1991 is a study of the history of the Canadian working class since 1800. Divided into seven detailed chapters, "the book traces the class struggles, political realignments, and cultural formations that evolved in the midst of economic and social transformation" and "follows Canadian workers as they travelled common routes of resistance and accommodation." It is a thorough study beginning with the movement of workers, from land to factories and workplaces of Canada's industrial revolution. The book is a revised and updated edition of the author's earlier work, Working-Class Experience: The Rise and Reconstitution of Canadian Labour, 1800-1980. The new edition contains a chapter on the contemporary period, looks more closely at the use and abuse of law by the state, further analyses the role of gender in working-class relations and considers political and economic issues central to working-class well being. <br> <br>Bryan D. Palmer is the author of numerous books and is a Professor of History at Queen's University. He is also the president of the Canadian Committee on Labour History and works closely with the journal Labour/Le Travail. <br> <br>[Abstract by Nabeeha Chaudhary] <br> <br> <br> <br>Table of Contents <br> <br>Preface <br>1. Producing Classes, Paternalist Authority, 1800-1850 <br>i) The Social Formation <br>ii) Paternalism <br>iii) Material Experiences: Divergent / Convergent <br>iv) The Irish and Others: Some Quantities <br>v) Apprenticeship <br>vi) The Respectable <br>vii) The Rough <br>viii) Crime, Anti-Crime, and Class: The Law and the Producers <br>ix) Rough Justice <br>x) The Insurrectionary Moment <br>xi) Gender, Class, and the Paternal Order <br>xii) Producing Classes and Paternalist Authority - Accommodation and Resistance <br>2. Class Differentiation and Antagonism, 1850-1880 <br>i) The Social Formation <br>ii) An Insurrection of Labour <br>iii) Unionism: Local and International <br>iv) Associational Life <br>v) Families <br>vi) Tavern Life: The World of Joe Beef's Canteen <br>vii) The Nine-Hour Pioneers <br>viii) Law and Labour: Establishing Limits <br>ix) The 1870s: Beginnings and an End <br>3. The Consolidation of Working-Class Opposition, 1880-1895 <br>i) The Social Formation <br>ii) Knights and Workmen <br>iii) A Movement Culture <br>iv) Brainworkers <br>v) Women <br>vi) Politics <br>vii) Strikes <br>viii) On the Margins of the Movement <br>ix) The Close of a Century <br>4. The Remaking of the Working Class and Its Oppositions, 1895-1920 <br>i) The Social Formation <br>ii) Material Life <br>iii) Internationalism <br>iv) Workplace Confrontation <br>v) The Politics of Dissent <br>vi) Regionalism: Radicalism / Religion <br>vii) Gendered Radicalism <br>viii) The War for Democracy <br>ix) General Strike <br>x) State and Class: Law and the Industrial Order <br>xi) Understanding Working-Class Oppositions and 1919 <br>5. Dissolution and Reconstitution, 1920-1940 <br>i) The Social Formation <br>ii) Labour Defeated <br>iii) Blood, Guts, and Culture on the Coal <br>iv) Communism <br>v) The Theatre of Mass Culture: The First Act <br>vi) Women of the New Day <br>vii) Working Against Not Working <br>viii) Reformism <br>ix) Industrial Unionism <br>x) Agitprop / Profit <br>xi) State Power in the Service of Class Interest <br>xii) The Pre-World War Two Context: Labour on the Defensive <br>6. Class, Culture, and Movement, 1940-1975 <br>i) The Social Formation <br>ii) Militancy, Legitimation, and the Arrival of Industrial Legality <br>iii) Unionism <br>iv) Labour's Cold War <br>v) Coming Together <br>vi) The Rise and Fall of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation <br>vii) Immigrants and Incomes <br>viii) Class and Nation: Quebec <br>ix) Youth, Popular Culture, and English-Canadian Nationalism <br>x) Women: At Home and Away <br>xi) The NDP: A Legacy of Class Ambivalence <br>xii) Fordism and the Canadian Working Class, 1940-1975 <br>7. Hard Times: Economic Downturn, the State, and Class Struggle, 1975-1991 <br>i) The Social Formation <br>ii) Cannibalizing the Clerks: Public-Sector Workers and State Attack <br>iii) A Tale of Two Provinces: The Assault on the Public Sector in Quebec and British Columbia <br>iv) A Tale of Two Bureaucracies: The Good Cop / Bad Cop Mythology of Trade Union Leadership <br>v) Slow-cialisms in One Province: Labour and the New Democratic Party in Hard Times <br>vi) Mass Culture: Spectacle and Hard Times <br>vii) Stabbing Back / Back-Stabbing <br>viii) The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: The Working Class in a Time of Permanent Crisis <br>Bibliography <br>Index CX18649 1 true true false CX18649.htm [0xc0004a0600 0xc00065cba0 0xc000d5cde0 0xc00111f650 0xc00150b950 0xc001cf0e10 0xc002425c20 0xc0000789c0 0xc0001d0270 0xc0001f9770 0xc000277800 0xc000330c30 0xc0004eeb10 0xc0001cf500 0xc000201410 0xc0003cfef0 0xc0000dfe00 0xc0002bc2a0 0xc00048d9b0 0xc0004abcb0 0xc0007dac30 0xc0002b5830 0xc0003d0cf0 0xc0004a83f0 0xc0005f37a0 0xc0008d80f0 0xc000b8e960 0xc000e6c720 0xc0002aa9c0 0xc000755a70 0xc0007f3ec0 0xc0008a1c50 0xc000bbede0 0xc000c1a420 0xc001163b90 0xc0002176b0 0xc000c99a70 0xc000eb1500 0xc00140d4a0 0xc00142c540 0xc0014aa510 0xc0014ab4a0 0xc00151d770 0xc0019d7ad0 0xc001a94f60 0xc001c8c8a0 0xc001d5c420 0xc000eaddd0 0xc0016217d0 0xc0019a5500 0xc001aa24b0 0xc001c12030 0xc0021497d0 0xc00218b920 0xc001fc0300 0xc001fc10e0 0xc002013ce0 0xc0004fb3e0 0xc0005b4c30 0xc0007cac00 0xc0009fb890 0xc001063800 0xc0010e9b30 0xc001194db0 0xc0011fd890 0xc0013668d0 0xc0014a7e30 0xc001548fc0 0xc0015a44e0 0xc0015bdb60 0xc001b04330 0xc0020e2720 0xc002143b30 0xc00263c7b0 0xc002775bf0 0xc0028b4fc0 0xc0028d3bc0 0xc002942780 0xc00295fc50 0xc0002e2a50] Cx}
Year Published:  1992
Pages:  455pp   ISBN:  0-7710-6945-6
Resource Type:  Book
Cx Number:  CX18649

From nineteenth-century tavern life to late twentieth-century cinema, from rough canallers and the first stirrings of craft unionism to contemporary public-sector strikes, this books provides a sweeping interpretive study of the history of the Canadian working class since 1800.

Abstract: 
Working Class Experience: Rethinking the History of Canadian Labour, 1800-1991 is a study of the history of the Canadian working class since 1800. Divided into seven detailed chapters, "the book traces the class struggles, political realignments, and cultural formations that evolved in the midst of economic and social transformation" and "follows Canadian workers as they travelled common routes of resistance and accommodation." It is a thorough study beginning with the movement of workers, from land to factories and workplaces of Canada's industrial revolution. The book is a revised and updated edition of the author's earlier work, Working-Class Experience: The Rise and Reconstitution of Canadian Labour, 1800-1980. The new edition contains a chapter on the contemporary period, looks more closely at the use and abuse of law by the state, further analyses the role of gender in working-class relations and considers political and economic issues central to working-class well being.

Bryan D. Palmer is the author of numerous books and is a Professor of History at Queen's University. He is also the president of the Canadian Committee on Labour History and works closely with the journal Labour/Le Travail.

[Abstract by Nabeeha Chaudhary]



Table of Contents

Preface
1. Producing Classes, Paternalist Authority, 1800-1850
i) The Social Formation
ii) Paternalism
iii) Material Experiences: Divergent / Convergent
iv) The Irish and Others: Some Quantities
v) Apprenticeship
vi) The Respectable
vii) The Rough
viii) Crime, Anti-Crime, and Class: The Law and the Producers
ix) Rough Justice
x) The Insurrectionary Moment
xi) Gender, Class, and the Paternal Order
xii) Producing Classes and Paternalist Authority - Accommodation and Resistance
2. Class Differentiation and Antagonism, 1850-1880
i) The Social Formation
ii) An Insurrection of Labour
iii) Unionism: Local and International
iv) Associational Life
v) Families
vi) Tavern Life: The World of Joe Beef's Canteen
vii) The Nine-Hour Pioneers
viii) Law and Labour: Establishing Limits
ix) The 1870s: Beginnings and an End
3. The Consolidation of Working-Class Opposition, 1880-1895
i) The Social Formation
ii) Knights and Workmen
iii) A Movement Culture
iv) Brainworkers
v) Women
vi) Politics
vii) Strikes
viii) On the Margins of the Movement
ix) The Close of a Century
4. The Remaking of the Working Class and Its Oppositions, 1895-1920
i) The Social Formation
ii) Material Life
iii) Internationalism
iv) Workplace Confrontation
v) The Politics of Dissent
vi) Regionalism: Radicalism / Religion
vii) Gendered Radicalism
viii) The War for Democracy
ix) General Strike
x) State and Class: Law and the Industrial Order
xi) Understanding Working-Class Oppositions and 1919
5. Dissolution and Reconstitution, 1920-1940
i) The Social Formation
ii) Labour Defeated
iii) Blood, Guts, and Culture on the Coal
iv) Communism
v) The Theatre of Mass Culture: The First Act
vi) Women of the New Day
vii) Working Against Not Working
viii) Reformism
ix) Industrial Unionism
x) Agitprop / Profit
xi) State Power in the Service of Class Interest
xii) The Pre-World War Two Context: Labour on the Defensive
6. Class, Culture, and Movement, 1940-1975
i) The Social Formation
ii) Militancy, Legitimation, and the Arrival of Industrial Legality
iii) Unionism
iv) Labour's Cold War
v) Coming Together
vi) The Rise and Fall of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation
vii) Immigrants and Incomes
viii) Class and Nation: Quebec
ix) Youth, Popular Culture, and English-Canadian Nationalism
x) Women: At Home and Away
xi) The NDP: A Legacy of Class Ambivalence
xii) Fordism and the Canadian Working Class, 1940-1975
7. Hard Times: Economic Downturn, the State, and Class Struggle, 1975-1991
i) The Social Formation
ii) Cannibalizing the Clerks: Public-Sector Workers and State Attack
iii) A Tale of Two Provinces: The Assault on the Public Sector in Quebec and British Columbia
iv) A Tale of Two Bureaucracies: The Good Cop / Bad Cop Mythology of Trade Union Leadership
v) Slow-cialisms in One Province: Labour and the New Democratic Party in Hard Times
vi) Mass Culture: Spectacle and Hard Times
vii) Stabbing Back / Back-Stabbing
viii) The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: The Working Class in a Time of Permanent Crisis
Bibliography
Index

Subject Headings

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