The Making of American Exceptionalism: The Knights of Labor and Class Formation in the Nineteenth CenturyWhy has the labor movement in the United States been so weak and politically conservative in comparison to movements in Western Europe? Kim Voss rejects traditional interpretations--theories of ?American exceptionalism?--which attribute this distinctiveness to inherent characteristics of American society. On the contrary, she demonstrates, the American labor movement had much in common with its English and French counterparts for most of the nineteenth century. Only with the collapse of the Knights of Labor, the largest American labor organization of the century, did the U.S. movement take a different path. |
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WorkingClass Formation and | 1 |
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Skilled and LessSkilled Work 18301880 | 46 |
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action activists alliances American exceptionalism American labor movement American workers analysis argued artisans assemblies of less-skilled British Bureau of Statistics Cambridge Census chap Chapter City collapse craft organization craft unions craft workers District Assembly E. P. Thompson economic employers England factory France French Hanagan History ideology immigrants included Jersey Bureau journeymen Knights members Knights of Labor Labor and Industries Labor Aristocracy labor force Labor History labor organizations leaders leather leatherworkers less skilled less-skilled workers LMANJ lockout manufacturing membership Newark nineteenth century NJBSLI occupations Order orga organization of less-skilled organizational organizing strategy party percent period political Powderly producerist radical republicanism role Selig Perlman skilled and less-skilled skilled workers skilled-workers socialist solidarity Statistics of Labor strike Tenth Annual Report Terence Powderly tion trade unions Trades Assembly Trenton U.S. Senate United University Press urban variables wage earners Wilentz Working-Class Formation York