Factories in the Field: The Story of Migratory Farm Labor in CaliforniaThis book was the first broad exposé of the social and environmental damage inflicted by the growth of corporate agriculture in California. Factories in the Field—together with the work of Dorothea Lange, Paul Taylor, and John Steinbeck—dramatizes the misery of the dust bowl migrants hoping to find work in California agriculture. McWilliams starts with the scandals of the Spanish land grant purchases, and continues on to examine the experience of the various ethnic groups that have provided labor for California's agricultural industry—Chinese, Japanese, Mexicans, Filipinos, Armenians—the strikes, and the efforts to organize labor unions |
Contents
| 3 | |
II Land Monopolization | 11 |
III Empires and Utopias | 28 |
IV The Pattern Is Cut | 48 |
V The Chinese | 66 |
VI The Factories Appear | 81 |
VII Our Oriental Agriculture | 103 |
VIII Social Consequences | 134 |
Delhi and Durham | 200 |
XIII The Great Strikes | 211 |
XIV The Rise of Farm Fascism | 230 |
XV The Drive for Unionization | 264 |
XVI The Trend toward Stabilization | 283 |
XVII The End of a Cycle | 305 |
| 327 | |
Bibliographical Essay | 335 |
Other editions - View all
Factories in the Field: The Story of Migratory Farm Labor in California Carey McWilliams Limited preview - 2000 |
Factories in the Field: The Story of Migratory Farm Labor in California Carey McWilliams Limited preview - 2000 |
Common terms and phrases
acreage acres agencies agricultural workers alien American Angeles army arrested Associated Farmers beets began Cali California agriculture California farm camp campaign cannery Carey McWilliams cents an hour Chinese Claus Spreckles colony committee cotton County crop cultivation demand employed employment existence fact farm factories farm industrialists farm labor farm workers Federation of Labor Filipino force fornia Fresno fruit grants harvest Henry Miller Hindu hundred Immigration Imperial Valley important industry Japanese John Steinbeck Kaweah labor in California land large growers large number living McWilliams ment Mexican Mexican labor migrants migratory labor migratory workers Miller and Lux officials operated orchards organize farm organized ownership Pacific Rural Press period pickers problem production race ranches recruited riot Sacramento Salinas San Francisco San Joaquin Valley season settlement settlers social Spreckles strike strikers sugar sugar-beet thousand throughout tion tramps transients union United vigilantes wages wheat Wheatland wobblies wrote