Listening to Workers : Oral Histories of Metro Detroit Autoworkers in The 1950s / Daniel J. Clark.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Clark, Daniel J., author.

Series:

Working class in American history.

Working Class in American History Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Automobile industry workers--Michigan--Detroit--History--20th century.

Automobile industry workers.

Labor--Michigan--Detroit--History--20th century.

Labor.

Detroit (Mich.)--Economic conditions--20th century.

Detroit (Mich.).

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Urbana, Illinois : University of Illinois Press, [2024]

Summary:

"Historians and readers alike often overlook the everyday experiences of workers. Drawing on years of interviews and archival research, Daniel J. Clark presents the rich, interesting, and sometimes confounding lives of men and women who worked in Detroit-area automotive plants in the 1950s. In their own words, the interviewees frankly discuss personal matters like divorce and poverty alongside recollections of childhood and first jobs, marriage and working women, church and hobbies, and support systems and workplace dangers. Their frequent struggles with unstable jobs and economic insecurity upend notions of the 1950s as a golden age of prosperity while stories of domestic violence and infidelity open a door to intimate aspects of their lives. Taken together, the narratives offer seldom-seen accounts of autoworkers as complex and multidimensional human beings. Compelling and surprising, Listening to Workers foregoes the union-focused strain of labor history to provide ground-level snapshots of a blue-collar world"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Cover

Title

Copyright

Contents

Acknowledgments

Alternate Groupings of Narratives

Introduction

1 Emerald Neal

2 Elwin Brown

3 Paul Ross

4 Margaret Beaudry

5 Joe Woods

6 Les “Lucky” Coleman

7 Gene Johnson

8 Dorothy Sackle

9 L.J. Scott

10 Thomas Nowak

11 James McGuire

12 Edith Arnold

13 James Franklin

14 Ernie Liles

15 Paul Ish

16 Katie Neumann

Conclusion

Notes

Interview List

Index

Back Cover Generated by AI.

Notes:

Includes index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Part of the metadata in this record was created by AI, based on the text of the resource.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780252047176

0252047176

OCLC:

1446133165