Rough Work : Labourers on the Public Works of British North America and Canada, 1841–1882 / Ruth Bleasdale.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bleasdale, Ruth, author.

Series:

Canadian Social History Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Labor--Canada--History.

Labor.

Public works--Canada.

Public works.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (403 pages) : illustrations, maps

Place of Publication:

Toronto : University of Toronto Press, [2018]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

The labourers at the heart of this study built the canals and railways undertaken as public works by the colonial governments of British North America and the federal government of Canada between 1841 and 1882. Ruth Bleasdale’s fascinating journey into the little-known lives of these labourers and their families reveals how capital, labour and the state came together to build the transportation infrastructure that linked colonies and united an emerging nation. Combining census and community records, government documents, and newspaper archives Bleasdale elucidates the ways in which successive governments and branches of the state intervened between labour and capital and in labourers’ lives. Case studies capture the remarkable diversity across regions and time in a labour force drawn from local and international labour markets. The stories here illuminate the ways in which men and women experienced the emergence of industrial capitalism and the complex ties which bound them to local and transnational communities. Rough Work is an accessibly written yet rigorous study of the galvanization of a major segment of Canada’s labour force over four decades of social and economic transformation.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Maps, Illustrations, and Tables

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Contracting on Public Works, 1841 to 1882

2. The Labour Force

3. The Work

4. The Living

5. The Boundaries of Belonging: Navvy Communities of the 1840s and 1850s

6. Degrees of Separation: Redefining the Boundaries of Belonging through the 1870s

7. Defining a Community of Interests: The 1840s and 1850s

8. Labour Unity and Militance on Public Works through the 1870s

Conclusion

Appendix: Location of Contracts (Sections) on the Intercolonial Railway and Third Welland Canal

Notes

Select Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 29. Aug 2018)

ISBN:

1-4875-1543-X

1-4875-1542-1

OCLC:

1027476560