Life And Labor In A Textile Mill Village

Since its original publication in 1987, Like a Family has become a classic in the study of American labor history. Basing their research on a series of extraordinary interviews, letters, and articles from the trade press, the authors uncover the voices and experiences of workers in the Southern cotton mill industry during the 1920s and 1930s. Now with a new afterword, this edition stands as an invaluable contribution to American social history. "The genius of Like a Family lies in its effortless integration of the history of the family--particularly women--into the history of the cotton-mill world.--Ira Berlin, New York Times Book Review "Like a Family is history, folklore, and storytelling all rolled into one. It is a living, revelatory chronicle of life rarely observed by the academe. A powerhouse.--Studs Terkel "Here is labor history in intensely human terms. Neither great impersonal forces nor deadening statistics are allowed to get in the way of people. If students of the New South want both the dimensions and the feel of life and labor in the textile industry, this book will be immensely satisfying.--Choice

Presents recorded observations of mill villages confined mostly to the central Piedmont region, extending from Danville, Virginia to Gainesville, Georgia with more intensive observation made of the cotton-mille people in and near Spartanburg, South Carolina. Specifically addresses population elements, social institutions and organizations, aspects of social legislation, and occupational conditions of the cotton-mill people.

Employing a valuable body of archival material from the Alamance mill in North Carolina, McHugh here examines the role of the family labor system in the early evolution of the postbellum Southern cotton textile industry and details the development of the mill village.

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In Creating the Modern South, Douglas Flamming examines one hundred years in the life of the mill and the town of Dalton, Georgia, providing a uniquely perceptive view of Dixie's social and economic transformation. "Beautifully written, it combines the rich specificity of a case study with broadly applicable synthetic conclusions.--Technology and Culture "A detailed and nuanced study of community development. . . . Creating the Modern South is an important book and will be of interest to anyone in the field of labor history.--Journal of Economic History "A rich and provocative study. . . . Its major contribution to our knowledge of the South is its careful account of the evolution and collapse of mill culture.--Journal of Southern History "Ambitious, and at times provocative, Creating the Modern South is a well-researched, highly readable, and engaging book.--Journal of American History

The setting for Lucy's story is a village built near a textile mill for the mill workers and their families. Through the eyes of eleven-year-old Lucy, we see the village in the early 1900s

This is the story of a revolution--the factors influencing management's decision to sell, the extent of the sales, procedures followed in the various sales, psychological effects upon the worker, effects upon labor-management relations, the reaction of the union, and the changes in mill village life resulting from the sales. Originally published in 1949. A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.