Lost Opportunities

Mary H. Blewett. Constant Turmoil: The Politics of Industrial Life in Nineteenth-Century New England. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2000. 544 pp. Illustrations, tables, notes, and index. $40.00.

In her first book, Men Women and Work: Class, Gender, and Protest in the New England Shoe Industry, 1780-1910, Mary Blewett explored the "interrelationships among men and women workers as the industrial revolution transformed the New England shoe industry in the nineteenth century." ¹ As such, Blewett was part of a generation of historians who sought to transform the "new" labor history not only by including women but by using gender as a critical category of analysis for understanding men, women, and industrialization itself. Blewett further sought to distinguish her work by framing her study in a regional context instead of the more conventional "community study" model which dominated the field of labor history in the 1970s and 1980s.

At first glance, Blewett's most recent book seems to have much in common with her first monograph. Although Constant Turmoil focuses on the textile industry while Men, Women and Work examines the shoe industry, both books explore industrial life in nineteenth-century New England. Moreover, both books highlight the ways in which labor protest, divisions of labor, and labor ideologies were gendered. However, Blewett's Constant Turmoil—which is a very big book in more ways than one—is not just an expanded version of her previous work.

Blewett begins Constant Turmoil with what seems to be a rather straightforward agenda. "This is a story of nineteenth-centuryindustrial development and the politics of industrial life" (p. 5). Industrial development, as discussed in this book, is treated in a comprehensive manner. Blewett examines native-born and immigrant workers in the workplace, in unions, and in the streets, highlighting moments of class cohesion and the more common episodes where workers divided over skill, ethnicity, protest tradition, gender ideals, and political strategies. However, this is not just a labor history that privileges workers and their relationships. Instead, Blewett provides a detailed discussion of Fall River's leading industrial families, most importantly the Bordens, Durfees,and Braytons. There are extended discussions of technological innovations and market trends. Finally, Blewett also discusses partisan politics, non-electoral political activities, and regulatory laws. It should come as no surprise, then, that Blewett ambitiously promises her readers: "I will investigate human agency and responsibility; managerial and technological changes; the clash of political and cultural legacies; changing images and meanings of working class gender, family relations, ethnic and racial identity; and the variations of class power. All of these elements contributed to the building of the Fall River system" (p. 9).

The comprehensivenessof Blewett's history of industrial life in New England is matched by her treatment of numerous historiographical debates and developments. Instead of relegating historiographical debates to a bibliographic essay or the endnotes, Blewett places them in the text itself. In the introductory chapter, it becomes clear that Blewett intends to contribute to as well as rethink revered classics and more recent works in labor history, women's history, gender history, political and state-centered histories, business history, and social history more generally. For example, she praises Herbert Gutman for focusing on mass workers who were often excluded from labor unions and alienated from partisan politics. She also praises his critical insights into the relationship between race and class. However, Blewett argues that in order to understand the complexity of labor in New England, we must move beyond the narrowly defined community studies of the past and instead pursue histories that encompass a regional perspective. In addition, she further challenges Gutman by arguing that in many cases, cultural and political life is best understood in the context of "protest heritages, workplace realities, and labor politics" rather than family and religion (p. 7). Blewett's harshest criticisms, however, are leveled at business historians who continue to privilege economic and political change over cultural experience. Blewett calls for a more integrated approach that recognizes the cultural basis of...