The Fabric of Gender: Working-Class Culture in Third Republic France (review)

Helen Chenut's elegantly written and meticulously researched study is a reminder of why labor history continues to matter. The book draws upon decades of social and labor history as it poses research questions drawn from updated analytical frameworks of culture, gender and consumption. Focusing on working class culture from the 1870s through the 1930s in the French textile town of Troyes, Chenut interrogates the limits and possibilities of class-based politics and offers fresh insights into the dynamic relationship between labor and consumption. In the broadest sense this is a case study of how workers responded to industrial capitalism's transformations of their work and lives. Chenut emphases two responses in particular: the creation of institutions animated by a culture of resistance, and the vision of a "social republic" to protect the interests of all of its citizens and ensure a living wage.

The book is clearly organized, both chronologically and topically. The introduction offers an intelligent review of the continuing relevance of labor history with pertinent thoughts on how it should be reexamined and re-conceptualized. This is followed by a chapter on the general strike of 1900 in Troyes and subsequent lock-out, where over twelve thousand men and women textile workers struggled over wages and piece rates in particular and for a social republic in general. Chenut deftly situates this strike within gendered conditions of labor, the highly contentious relationship between textile workers and mill owners, and socialist and trade union activism. Three subsequent chapters delve into textile production in Troyes, an essentially single-industry town that by 1900 was the leading producer of knitted textiles in France. Chenut describes the origins of the hosiery industry, technological changes within production, the "family capitalism" of the local mill owners, gender-specific working conditions of textile workers in factories and in outwork production, and the broader culture of production as it encompassed workers' lives. Chenut is particularly attentive to the gendered division of work, noting the high percentage of women in the industry, their lower pay even for skilled work, and the low birth rates. Socialism and trade unionism developed in the region within the broader context of working class and gendered politics nationally.

Perhaps the most innovative aspects of this book are those dealing with working class consumption, a subject directly addressed by two chapters. One begins by quoting Louis Foin, a knitter and administrator of the worker's consumer cooperative. Foin argued that higher wages would address workers demands as consumers, which in turn would stimulate production. Foin and other workers in Troyes overtly linked consumption to the politics of distribution and social citizenship. Demands for shorter hours (the eight hour day) spoke to time away from waged work, and higher wages addressed the right to consume. Chenut focuses on two aspects of workers as consumers: clothing, which served as a marker of class in the 19c, and the local socialist consumer cooperative, founded in 1886. We learn through her analyses of inventories after death and period photographs how working people embraced ready-made clothing that did not connote social rank. The cooperative, which she argues forged a "significant counterculture for class-conscious consumers" (p. 234), sustained class conscious consumption and non-capitalist retaining practices. It also provided funds to strikers and promoted socialist values through education and leisure activities. These efforts effectively triangulated socialism, leisure, and consumption as collective means for a more equitable distribution of money, time, and consumer goods.

Another chapter on interwar consumption elucidates how the socialist consumer cooperative met the challenges of consumer capitalism and sustained a class-specific character until the mid-1930s, when financial difficulties forced a merger with a regional cooperative that utilized more capitalistic practices. Chenut creatively uses period photographs to demonstrate how women workers wore clothing that expressed broader identities linked to fashion and the "new woman" of the era, even as their limited incomes meant reworking inexpensive accessories and...