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 [0xc000184b10 0xc000930db0 0xc000e33440 0xc00114c120 0xc00152ed80 0xc0016183c0 0xc000066a80 0xc0001a1ad0 0xc000253500 0xc00028cab0 0xc000128ff0 0xc000306630 0xc00051b560 0xc00020c390 0xc00023a390 0xc0003f5230 0xc000123500 0xc0002f5b90 0xc0004a9800 0xc0004c3b30 0xc00099b920 0xc000379500 0xc000484ba0 0xc00057c3c0 0xc0006c1b90 0xc00096e690 0xc000b00f90 0xc0009f3950 0xc00041b0b0 0xc0009c0f60 0xc000a75470 0xc000b27350 0xc000f8e600 0xc000fafc20 0xc0003cb9e0 0xc0004d37d0 0xc0011e79b0 0xc0012bf6b0 0xc001569a70 0xc001590b10 0xc001606de0 0xc001607d70 0xc00169e0c0 0xc0018aacc0 0xc00196c360 0xc000e47230 0xc00038b770 0xc00112bf50 0xc0018486f0 0xc001936540 0xc001a07710 0xc001f0f3b0 0xc002344d20 0xc002388e70 0xc00256ef90 0xc00256fd70 0xc0001dc390 0xc00083e300 0xc0008bdc20 0xc000ab9cb0 0xc000d6cb10 0xc001267020 0xc0012d7350 0xc00136c600 0xc0013ad0e0 0xc00158c240 0xc001727950 0xc001770b10 0xc0017e60f0 0xc0018057a0 0xc001b203f0 0xc002010c30 0xc0023740f0 0xc0027718f0 0xc0028bb0e0 0xc002a9def0 0xc002b3d9e0 0xc00034c030 0xc0003b7530 0xc00062c3c0] 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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