Access the full text.
Sign up today, get DeepDyve free for 14 days.
References for this paper are not available at this time. We will be adding them shortly, thank you for your patience.
756 / RADICAL HISTORY REVIEW âheroic ageâ of the American artisan, an era beginning with the Philadephia days of Tom Paine and lasting through the young adulthood of Eugene Victor Debs. Possessing indispensable skills in hat manufacturing, laboring in small workshops under autonomous and egalitarian conditions largely of their own choosing, these craftsmen developed a mutualistic workplace ethos stressing loyalty and generosity-in Bensmanâs words, solidarity-toward each other. Hat finishers differed from other artisanal groups in some respects, especially in their aloofness from the working-class political battles of the second and third quarters of the nineteenth century. Bensman does not adequately explain this aloofness-an awkward silence in a book so focused on the artisanal sources of political culture-but this lapse turns out not to matter so much. Beginning in the 1870s and 188Os, these hat finishers were f drawn into the world o working-class politics they had so long disdained, exchanging their conservative brand of republicanism for a more radical variety and losing their exceptional character in the process. The moment of their integration into an emerging American working class marks the beginning of the compelling part of Bensmanâs book. A potentially dry, institutional history of workers centralizing their
Radical History Review – Duke University Press
Published: Apr 1, 1988
Read and print from thousands of top scholarly journals.
Already have an account? Log in
Bookmark this article. You can see your Bookmarks on your DeepDyve Library.
To save an article, log in first, or sign up for a DeepDyve account if you don’t already have one.
Copy and paste the desired citation format or use the link below to download a file formatted for EndNote
Access the full text.
Sign up today, get DeepDyve free for 14 days.
All DeepDyve websites use cookies to improve your online experience. They were placed on your computer when you launched this website. You can change your cookie settings through your browser.