Like a Family: The Making of a Southern Cotton Mill World
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.
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A classic study of labor history in the textile industry of the South during the 1920s and 30s. The authors drew from extensive interviews, letters, and newspaper articles to reconstruct the lives and struggles of factory workers and their families. This edition includes a new prologue and epilogue. Library Journal Drawing on oral interviews and workers' letters, the authors re-create the village world of the cotton mills of the Carolina Piedmont region from its beginnings in the 1880s until this distinctive cultural fabric began to unravel in the 1930s. The emphasis is on showing how kinship and a common culture gave these mill hands, mostly of rural origin, a shared identity and a hedge against poverty and management. While these rich materials have not been woven into a fully integrated account, they provide a new and significant dimension to the story of these Southern cotton workers. Recommended for subject collections.Harry Frumerman, formerly with Hunter Coll., CUNY
ContentsForeword by Michael Frisch Preface Acknowledgments Note on Sources Part One: Cotton Mill People Chapter 1. Everything We Had Chapter 2. Public Work Chapter 3. From the Cradle to the Grave Part Two: Air and Promises Chapter 4. Hard Rules Chapter 5. Turn Your Radio On Chapter 6. A Multitude of Sins Epilogue Afterword Notes Bibliography Index Maps1. Textile Spindleage in the Southeast, 1929 2. Counties of the Southeast, 19293. Rivers and Railroads of the Southeast, 1930 4. Selected Mill Towns of the Carolinas, 1930IllustrationsA North Carolina mountain farm Men gathered for wheat threshing Advertisement for Altamahaw Plaids Officers and superintendents of the Cone family's Proximity and White Oak plants The Gaffney Manufacturing Company Workers at the Franklinville Manufacturing Company Doffers at the Bibb Mill No. 1Learning to spin Men opening bales of cotton at the White Oak Mill Card room hands at the Franklinville Manufacturing Company Men and women weaving at the White Oak Mill Women drawing in at the White Oak Mill The card room at the White Oak Mill Swimming in the whirlpool on the Deep River Girls enjoy a break from work The superintendent's house at the Franklinville Manufacturing Company D. A. Tompkin's plan for a four-room mill house Children six to eight years old in the school at the Lynchburg Cotton Mills Welfare worker conducting a domestic science class at Proximity Mills The mill baseball team at Bynum, North Carolina Children participating in organized recreation at the Franklinville Manufacturing Company Raising chickens Caring for livestock Advertisement for labor-saving machinery Advertisement for Veeder-Root pick counters Advertisement for high-speed machinery Ella May Wiggins Flossie Cole Grindstaff Lawrence Hogan The Piedmont Heights mill complex and village James Spencer Love James Lee Love with Cornelia and Spencer The Hagenback and Wallace Show The Swingbillies Preacher George Washington Swinney Glen Hope Baptist Church The Blue Eagle Francis Gorman George Sloan Union memebers marching down the main street of Gastonia, North Carolina National Guardsmen rounding up strikers in Newman, Gerogia Dancing pickets outside the Clark Thread Mill Striking workers fresh from a confontation with police outside the Trion Cotton Mill Lacy Wright Icy Norman"Performing Like a Family" performance ensemble, production staff, and co-author Robert Korstad
\ From the PublisherThis eloquent reconstruction of the cotton mill world allows us to understand and to pay homage to those who fought and lost.\ Ira Berlin, New York Times Book Review\ A work of scholarship that is both authoritative and most refreshingly undogmatic.\ Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post Book World\ Diligent research and fine writing has produced a landmark work.\ Journal of Southern History\ Like a Family is that rare compelling book, a delight for the academic and the public, with much to say to both.\ Journal of American History\ Like a Family is the most important study of southern cotton mill workers we have ever had.\ Reviews in American History\ \ \ \ \ \ Library JournalDrawing on oral interviews and workers' letters, the authors re-create the village world of the cotton mills of the Carolina Piedmont region from its beginnings in the 1880s until this distinctive cultural fabric began to unravel in the 1930s. The emphasis is on showing how kinship and a common culture gave these mill hands, mostly of rural origin, a shared identity and a hedge against poverty and management. While these rich materials have not been woven into a fully integrated account, they provide a new and significant dimension to the story of these Southern cotton workers. Recommended for subject collections.Harry Frumerman, formerly with Hunter Coll., CUNY\ \
