Respectability on the line gender, race, and labor along British and colonial Indian railways Mattie Armstrong-Price

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Armstrong-Price, Mattie, author.

Series:

Berkeley series in British studies

Berkeley Series in British Studies v.24

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Railroads--Great Britain--History--19th century.

Railroads.

Railroads--India--History--19th century.

Railroads--Great Britain--Employees--History--19th century.

Railroads--India--Employees--History--19th century.

Railroads--History.

Railroads--Employees--History.

Great Britain.

India.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Oakland University of California Press 2026

Summary:

Respectability on the Line offers a social and cultural history of railway labor in Britain and colonial India from the 1840s through World War I. The book treats the railway industry as a microcosm through which to study the history of capitalism in the liberal imperial era. Using company records, Mattie Armstrong-Price shows how executives shaped the domestic and working lives of higher-grade employees with an eye to cultivating their respectability. Meanwhile workers' writings reveal how railway towns provided opportunities for some employees to maintain non-heteronormative living arrangements. The book tracks these histories of everyday life while also outlining stories of early trade unionism. In Britain, railway unionists established benefit funds that mimicked company-sponsored provident funds, while in colonial India workers fought to gain access to company benefits on equal terms. This comparative study shows how industrial labor was made through conflict, subversion, and accommodation across an uneven imperial field

Contents:

Frontmatter Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Part One. Railway Paternalism and the Making of Sexual Cultures of Labor, 1840s-1860s 1. Imperfect Technologies of Moralization: Railway Paternalism in Mid-Nineteenth- Century Britain 2. Strains of Permissiveness, Fields of Force: Railway Paternalism in Colonial India after 1857 Part Two. Making Railway Unionism between Britain and Colonial India, 1870s-1880s 3. Paternal Figures: The Politics of Race and Gender in Early Railway Unionism Part Three. Mass Movements and the Making of Social Liberalism, 1890s-1910s 4. Laboring behind the Curtain: Industrial Unionism and Social Liberal Governance in Britain 5. Conveying Grievances in the Vernacular: Nationalist-Aligned Unionism and Social Liberal Reform in Colonial India Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index

Description based on CIP data; resource not viewed

Other Format:

Print version:

Print version Armstrong-Price, Mattie Respectability on the Line

ebook version :

ISBN:

9780520421578

0520421574

OCLC:

1570339207

Publisher Number:

CIPO000329084

CIPO000329083

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license