Work and Labor in Early America

Work and Labor in Early America
Author :
Publisher : UNC Press Books
Total Pages : 310
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780807838587
ISBN-13 : 0807838586
Rating : 4/5 (586 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Work and Labor in Early America by : Stephen Innes

Download or read book Work and Labor in Early America written by Stephen Innes and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2013-04-01 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ten leading scholars of early American social history here examine the nature of work and labor in America from 1614 to 1820. The authors scrutinize work diaries, private and public records, and travelers' accounts. Subjects include farmers, farmwives, urban laborers, plantation slave workers, midwives, and sailors; locales range from Maine to the Caribbean and the high seas. These essays recover the regimen that consumed the waking hours of most adults in the New World, defined their economic lives, and shaped their larger existence. Focusing on individuals as well as groups, the authors emphasize the choices that, over time, might lead to prosperity or to the poorhouse. Few people enjoyed sinecures, and every day brought new risks. Stephen Innes introduces the collection by elucidating the prophetic vision of Captain John Smith: that the New World offered abundant reward for one's "owne industrie." Several motifs stand out in the essays. Family labor has begun to assume greater prominence, both as a collective work unit and as a collective economic unit whose members worked independently. Of growing interest to contemporary scholars is the role of family size and sex ratio in determining economic decision, and vice ersa. Work patterns appear to have been driven by the goal of creating surplus production for markets; perhaps because of a desire for higher consumption, work patterns began to intensify throughout the eighteenth century and led to longer work days with fewer slack periods. Overall, labor relations showed no consistent evolution but remained fluid and flexible in the face of changing market demands in highly diverse environments. The authors address as well the larger questions of American development and indicate the directions that research in this expanding field might follow.


Work and Labor in Early America Related Books

Work and Labor in Early America
Language: en
Pages: 310
Authors: Stephen Innes
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2013-04-01 - Publisher: UNC Press Books

GET EBOOK

Ten leading scholars of early American social history here examine the nature of work and labor in America from 1614 to 1820. The authors scrutinize work diarie
Government and Labor in Early America
Language: en
Pages: 580
Authors: Richard Brandon Morris
Categories: Labor
Type: BOOK - Published: 1965 - Publisher:

GET EBOOK

Making the Empire Work
Language: en
Pages: 382
Authors: Daniel E. Bender
Categories: Business & Economics
Type: BOOK - Published: 2015-07-17 - Publisher: NYU Press

GET EBOOK

Millions of laborers, from the Philippines to the Caribbean, performed the work of the United States empire. Forging a global economy connecting the tropics to
Child Labor
Language: en
Pages: 434
Authors: Hugh D Hindman
Categories: Business & Economics
Type: BOOK - Published: 2016-09-16 - Publisher: Routledge

GET EBOOK

Despite its decline throughout the advanced industrial nations, child labor remains one of the major social, political, and economic concerns of modern history,
The Invention of Free Labor
Language: en
Pages: 292
Authors: Robert J. Steinfeld
Categories: Business & Economics
Type: BOOK - Published: 1991 - Publisher: UNC Press Books

GET EBOOK

Examining the emergence of the modern conception of free labor--labor that could not be legally compelled, even though voluntarily agreed upon--Steinfeld explai