A New Order of Things: How the Textile Industry Transformed New England
For nearly two centuries, the New England economy revolved around coastal seaport towns, scattered farms, town centers, and a forest industry geared to turning tall trees into masts for His Majesty's Navy. The American Revolution eliminated the need for masts, but technologies imported from England for twisting cotton and woolen fibers into yarn initiated a major change in the newly-independent country's textile industry. Mills and factories replaced crops and trees, changing the people and...
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A lavishly-illustrated social history of the manufacture that did most to transform the character of New England and of America.
ForewordPrefaceAcknowledgments1Introduction: An Overview of the Textile Trade12Extend the Mills: Spinning Cotton in New England93The "Masheen": The Wool Carding Machine Comes to New England154Made in Families: Weaving at Home with New Tools195Diaper, Tow, and Crash: Manufacturing Linen in New England276Great Expectations: Cotton Mill Fever Creates Textile Towns347The Waltham Power Loom: Investing in Power Weaving448"The Best Wheel in the World": Waterpower in New England519Genius, Wealth, and Industry: Lowell Astonishes the World5910Calico, Blocks, and Rollers: Printing Technology and the New Fashion6611"Simply Preposterous": New England's Woolen Mills Catch Up7912Jenny, Jack, and Billy: The Woolen Machinery Family8913The Beginnings of Social Change: The New England Mill Workers9514"Acres of Girlhood": A Workforce of Women10215Rising Tide of Discontent: The Struggle for "Freedom"11016"Gifted in Mind, Body and Estate": New England Builds an Immigrant Workplace11717The Lawrence Experience: The Fall and Reprise of a New England Textile City12118Smokestacks and Train Tracks: Steam Engines Promote Textile Manufacture12619Speeders, Pickers, and Mules: New England's New Machinery134Notes145Selected Bibliography149Index151
