In this Book
- Poor Man's Fortune: White Working-Class Conservatism in American Metal Mining, 1850–1950
- Book
- 2020
- Published by: The University of North Carolina Press
summary
White working-class conservatives have played a decisive role in American history, particularly in their opposition to social justice movements, radical critiques of capitalism, and government help for the poor and sick. While this pattern is largely seen as a post-1960s development, Poor Man's Fortune tells a different story, excavating the long history of white working-class conservatism in the century from the Civil War to World War II. With a close study of metal miners in the Tri-State district of Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma, Jarod Roll reveals why successive generations of white, native-born men willingly and repeatedly opposed labor unions and government-led health and safety reforms, even during the New Deal.
With painstaking research, Roll shows how the miners' choices reflected a deep-seated, durable belief that hard-working American white men could prosper under capitalism, and exposes the grim costs of this view for these men and their communities, for organized labor, and for political movements seeking a more just and secure society. Roll's story shows how American inequalities are in part the result of a white working-class conservative tradition driven by grassroots assertions of racial, gendered, and national privilege.
Table of Contents
- Title Page, Copyright, Dedication
- pp. i-viii
- Introduction
- pp. 1-18
- 1. Finding's Keeping
- pp. 19-45
- 2. The Favorite of Fortune
- pp. 46-68
- 3. Nothing but His Labor
- pp. 69-97
- 5. The American Boy Has Held His Own
- pp. 128-164
- 6. Red-Blooded,Rugged Individuals
- pp. 165-199
- 7. Back to Work
- pp. 200-242
- Acknowledgments
- pp. 259-262
- Bibliography
- pp. 301-322
Additional Information
ISBN
9798890858085
Related ISBN(s)
9781469656281, 9781469656298, 9781469656304
MARC Record
OCLC
1149924259
Pages
360
Launched on MUSE
2020-04-14
Language
English
Open Access
Yes