Banded Together: Economic Democratization in the Brass Valley

Title Page, Copyright, Dedication, Quote

Banded Together The Wor king Cl a ss in Amer ica n Hist or y Editorial Advisors James R. Barrett Alice Kessler-Harris Nelson Lichtenstein David Montgomery A list of books in the series appears at the end of this book. Banded Together Economic Democratization in the Brass Valley Jer emy Br echer University of Illinois Press Ur ba na , Chic ag o, a nd Spr ingf iel d © 2011 b y the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America 1 2 3 4 5 c p 5 4 3 2 1 ∞ This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Brecher, Jeremy. Banded together : economic democratization in the Brass Valley / Jeremy Brecher. p. cm. — (The working class in American history) Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn-13: 978-0-252-03612-5 (h ardcover : alk. paper) isbn-10: 0-252-03612-3 (h ardcover : alk. paper) isbn-13: 978-0-252-07806-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) isbn-10: 0-252-07806-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Social action—Connecticut—Naugatuck River Valley. 2. Deindustrialization—Connecticut—Naugatuck River Valley— History. 3. Naugatuck River Valley (Conn.)—Social conditions. 4. Naugatuck River Valley (Conn.)—Economic conditions. 5. Brass Workers History Project. I. Title. hn17.5.b713   2011 330.9746'1—dc22   2010040244 ἀ is book is dedicated to the people of the Naugatuck Valley, who have educated me, sustained me, and taken me unto them as their pet outsider. I can truly say of the valley, as Herman Melville’s Ishmael said of his whale ship, that it has been my Yale College and my Harvard. If all the people in a city are banded together to make it a better place to live, then it will be a better place to live. That’s what the Naugatuck Valley Project is all about. —Theresa Francis ...