Bread and Roses: Mills, Migrants, and the Struggle for the American DreamThe 1912 textile strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts was a watershed moment in labor history as significant as the Haymarket bombing in Chicago and the Triangle fire in New York. In "Bread and Roses," veteran journalist Bruce Watson provides a long-overdue account of the strike that began when textile workers stormed out of the mills in Lawrence on a frigid January day. Despite owners? predictions to the contrary, the walkout soon became a protracted Dickensian drama that included twenty-three thousand strikers from fifty-one nations singing as they paraded through Lawrence, bayonet-toting militiamen patrolling the streets, and the daring evacuation of the strikers? tattered and hungry children to Manhattan, where they lived with strangers and wrote loving letters to their parents on the picket line. Based on newspaper accounts, magazine reportage, and oral histories, "Bread and Roses" is vividly narrated and teeming with colorful characters?including rags-to-riches mill owner William Wood and radical labor leader ?Big Bill? Haywood. A rousing history with the narrative drive of a novel, "Bread and Roses" is the true-to-life tale of a strike that became the fabric of a community and an inspiration to workers around the world. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
For Two Hours Pay | 7 |
The Battle of the Merrimack | 43 |
Copyright | |
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Bread and Roses: Mills, Migrants, and the Struggle for the American Dream Bruce Watson Limited preview - 2006 |
Bread and Roses: Mills, Migrants, and the Struggle for the American Dream Bruce Watson Limited preview - 2006 |
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American arrested asked began Boston Evening Globe Boston Globe Bread called charged city's committee common Company crowd Daily dollars dynamite Ettor face Father February finally fired Flynn Giovannitti Girl hall hand Haywood head hearings History House hundred Ibid immigrants Industrial Italian Italy January John judge Labor Labor Movement later Lawrence Evening Tribune Lawrence Telegram Lawrence Tribune leaders lived March Massachusetts mayor meeting militia mill owners morning mother moved murder never October offer organized parade picket police Press raise Report riot rose Scanlon seemed sent soldiers Street strike talk Testimony textile thousand throughout told took town train train station trial turned Union University violence wages week William Wood Wobblies woman women Wood wool Woolen workers World York