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For retired steelworkers in Youngstown, Ohio, the label "working class" fits comfortably. Questioning the view that labourers in post-war America have adopted middle-class values, Robert Bruno shows that in this community a blue-collar identity has provided a positive focus for many residents. The son of a Youngstown steelworker, Bruno returned to his hometown seeking to understand the formation of his own working-class consciousness and the place of labour in the larger capitalist society. Drawing on interviews with dozens of former steelworkers and on research in local archives, Bruno explores the culture of the community, including such subjects as relations among co-workers, class antagonism and attitudes towards authority. He describes how, because workers are often neighbours, the workplace takes on a feeling of neighbourhood. He also demonstrates that to understand class conscioousness, one must look beyond the workplace, in this instance from Youngstown's front porches to its bowling alleys and voting booths.
For retired steelworkers in Youngstown, Ohio, the label "working class" fits comfortably. Questioning the view that labourers in post-war America have adopted middle-class values, Robert Bruno shows that in this community a blue-collar identity has provided a positive focus for many residents. The son of a Youngstown steelworker, Bruno returned to his hometown seeking to understand the formation of his own working-class consciousness and the place of labour in the larger capitalist society. Drawing on interviews with dozens of former steelworkers and on research in local archives, Bruno explores the culture of the community, including such subjects as relations among co-workers, class antagonism and attitudes towards authority. He describes how, because workers are often neighbours, the workplace takes on a feeling of neighbourhood. He also demonstrates that to understand class conscioousness, one must look beyond the workplace, in this instance from Youngstown's front porches to its bowling alleys and voting booths.
Robert Bruno is Assistant Professor in the Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations at the University of Illinois.
In marvellously well written passages, Bruno is able to really
evoke a feeling for the working and home lives of his
interviewees.... He builds up a picture of life experience that is
completely at odds with any notion of the disappearance of the
working class.
*The Journal of Industrial Relations*
Steelworker Alley is a compassionate book based on extensive
research chronicling the lives and identities of men who had been
steelworkers. Bruno offers a significant contribution to the debate
on class consciousness by examining how the similarity of their
lives on the job, at home and in their neighborhoods created the
basis for a shred sense of identity for steelworkers.... This
analytical account... raises troubling concerns regarding the
options people have to provide for their families in a economic
system so heavily weighed against them.
*Canadian Journal of Sociology*
Bruno has provided a very compelling discussion of how class works
in Youngstown.... Steelworker Alley is an important contribution to
new working-class studies. Not only is it worker-centered, but it
attempts to deal with the contradictory expressions of class in
America. The book should be of interest to labour historians and
educators, social scientists, and cultural geographers.
*Left History*
For this well-written ethnography, Bruno interviewed 75 retirees,
wives and other residents.... Readers see everyday working-class
life.... Recommended for classes in stratification, social history,
and work.
*Choice*
Steelworker Alley suggests that the recent books on working-class
illiberalism do not tell the whole story.
*Industrial and Labor Relations Review*
This book combines the immediacy of personal recollection with
scholarly analysis to describe working-class life.
*Library Journal*
In marvellously well written passages, Bruno is able to really evoke a feeling for the working and home lives of his interviewees.... He builds up a picture of life experience that is completely at odds with any notion of the disappearance of the working class.
-- Diane Fieldes * The Journal of Industrial Relations *This book combines the immediacy of personal recollection with scholarly analysis to describe working-class life.
* Library Journal *Bruno has provided a very compelling discussion of how class works in Youngstown.... Steelworker Alley is an important contribution to new working-class studies. Not only is it worker-centered, but it attempts to deal with the contradictory expressions of class in America. The book should be of interest to labour historians and educators, social scientists, and cultural geographers.
-- John Russo, Youngstown State University * Left History *For this well-written ethnography, Bruno interviewed 75 retirees, wives and other residents.... Readers see everyday working-class life.... Recommended for classes in stratification, social history, and work.
* Choice * |
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