Name
Schneider, Dorothee, 1952-
Title
Trade unions and community : the German working class in New York City, 1870-1900
Abstract
In Trade Unions and Community Dorothee Schneider argues that German unions played a vital role in building community for German immigrants in North America. More than other organizations such as churches or regional groups, Schneider maintains, trade unions were in the best position to build community in a new, rapidly changing industrial society
Why were the unions so well suited to the development of the German-American working class and its integration into North American society and politics? What was the effect of the trade unions' central role on the community as a whole? Did these unions carry their community-building role into the American trade union movement in general?
To answer these questions, Schneider focuses on German-American skilled workers, portraying a group of immigrants who brought from Europe not just their pre-industrial traditions but also a wealth of experience in industrialized settings and a diverse political culture
Examining bakers, brewery workers, and cigar makers, she highlights the origins of the political culture of the American immigrant working class in a new way. Schneider argues that, in spite of the contradictory interests of traditionalists, political progressives, and assimilationists, German-American workers favored a centralized craft unionism and thus became backers of Samuel Gompers's American Federation of Labor
Collection Name
Seymour B. Durst Old York Library Collection
Subjects
Trade-unions--New York (State)--New York--History.; German Americans--Employment--New York (State)--New York--History.; Noncitizen labor--New York (State)--New York--History.; Community--New York (State)--New York--History.; New York (N.Y.)
Format
books
Genre
books
Publication Information
University of Illinois Press: Urbana
Date
c1994
Physical Description
xx, 273 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.
Contents
1. New York's German Immigrants: Parameters of a Community -- 2. Politics and Culture of German New York: The World of the Vereine -- 3. New York's Cigar Makers and Their Trade: The American Cigar Industry in Historical Perspective -- 4. The Great Strike of 1877 -- 5. Cigar Makers and Trade Unions: Politics and the Community -- 6. Working-Class Politics and the Henry George Campaign of 1886 -- 7. New York's Brewery Workers and Their Union -- 8. The New Organization of Brewery Workers: Ethnic and Industrial Unionism -- 9. The German Bakers of New York City: Ethnic Particularism in the Sweated Trades -- Conclusion: German Immigrants and American Labor.
Catalog Record
1447388
Also In
Seymour B. Durst Old York Library
Persistent URL
https://dx.doi.org/10.7916/d8-kx0w-ds39