Worked Over: The Corporate Sabotage of an American Community (review)

Too often the social implications of the transformation from proprietary to managerial capitalism are overlooked, despite the dramatic impact that this development can have on the structure and well-being of acommunity. In Worked Over, Dimitra Doukas provides an interesting account of how the Mohawk River Valley in New York was affected by the sale of the Remington works from this well-known industrial family to Hartely and Graham, apparent members of the Winchester gun trust, in 1886. While the Remington family had ostensibly supported this community, Doukas contends that its new owners, and by implication all of those that followed, effectively took over political control of this valley and worked to undermine its welfare.

In many respects Doukas tells a very familiar story of the transformation of proprietary shops into modern corporations run by the principles of scientific management. As the skill level of average workers declined and control over production processes shifted toward managers, workers felt increasingly alienated. Clearly these feelings of alienation can be exacerbated by undue political influence exercised by corporations in the political sphere. Doukas demonstrates how both of these factors created high levels of frustration in the Mohawk River Valley.

In essence, this book captures the collective nostalgia of the people living in this region at a time when they saw their standard of living declining. Doukas draws on ethnographic and historical sources to paint her picture of the plight of the people in the Mohawk River Valley. Her book provides an excellent historical account of the development of the Remington works from its founding until the time of its sale to Hartely and Graham in 1886. It should be praised for the scope of the project that it seeks to undertake, as it clearly is adifficult endeavor to link corporate with social change. Nevertheless, Doukas' desire to attribute all of the misfortunes of this community to the transformation of the Remington works detracts from the narrative she has written. In general, the ethnographic evidence she presents could have been more tightly woven into her historical analysis.

Both of these problems are particularly evident in the third part of the book, in which she describes the company after its sale to Hartely and Graham. In this part of the book she jettisons historical and ethnographic evidence in favor of a general discussion about the evils of modern day capitalism. At times Worked Over simply attributes historical events to the conspiracy of corporations. Although the book's account of the "urban renewal" in the Mohawk River Valley in 1972 leaves the reader wondering about the logic of such projects, it is unclear how urban renewal relates to the story of the Remington works. While this company clearly benefited from being able to "clear" space between two of its major facilities in the valley's main town, Doukas implies, but fails to prove, the link between this firm and the urban renewal project.

A similar problem emerges in her discussion of the bankruptcy of the Remington works in 1886. She contends that the Remington works were unjustly forced into bankruptcy. Yet her analysis of the financial situation of the company, which she admits was extremely complicated, is rather superficial. She claims that the company was on sound financial footing, yet shortly thereafter she points out that for over a decade before its sale the Remingtons relied on company script to pay its workers. Why would a financially sound and beneficent company rely on a practice that Doukas herself deems a "disreputable" practice? Without providing any evidence as to the actual salaries of workers at this time, she contends that the company could get away with it because its employees received adequate salaries.

Although Worked Over discusses the plight of the Mohawk River Valley after the Remington works were finally closed...