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Robber Barons and Wretched Refuse : Ethnic and Class Dynamics during the Era of American Industrialization / Robert F. Zeidel.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Ithaca, NY : Cornell University Press, [2020]Copyright date: ©2021Description: 1 online resource (306 p.)Content type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9781501748325
  • 9781501748332
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 331.6/20973 23
LOC classification:
  • HD8081.A5 Z34 2020
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources:
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Capitalists and Immigrants in Historical Perspective, 1865–1924 -- 1. Harmonic Dissidence: Immigrants and the Onset of Industrial Strife -- 2. No Danger among Them: Asian Immigrants as Industrial Workers -- 3. Alien Anarchism: Immigrants and Industrial Unrest in the 1880s -- 4. Confronting the Barons: Immigrant Workers and Individual Moguls -- 5. Into the New Century: Economic Expansion and Continued Discord -- 6. Turmoil Amid Reform: Immigrant Worker Protest and Progressivism -- 7. Effects of War: Immigrant Labor Dynamics during the Great War -- 8. Addressing the Reds: Immigrants and the Postwar Great Scare of 1919–1921 -- 9. Restricting the Hordes: Implementation of Immigrant Quotas -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index
Summary: Robber Barons and Wretched Refuse explores the connection between the so-called robber barons who led American big businesses during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era and the immigrants who comprised many of their workforces. As Robert F. Zeidel argues, attribution of industrial-era class conflict to an "alien" presence supplements nativism—a sociocultural negativity towards foreign-born residents—as a reason for Americans' dislike and distrust of immigrants. And in the era of American industrialization, employers both relied on imigrants to meet their growing labor needs and blamed them for the frequently violent workplace contention of the time. Through a sweeping narrative of the time, Zeidel uncovers the connection of immigrants to radical "isms" that gave rise to widespread notions of alien subversives whose presence threatened America's domestic tranquility and the well-being of its residents. Employers, rather than looking at their own practices for causes of workplace conflict, wontedly attributed strikes and other unrest to aliens who either spread pernicious "foreign" doctrines or fell victim to their siren messages. These characterizations transcended nationality or ethnic group, applying at different times to all foreign-born workers. Zeidel concludes that, ironically, stigmatizing immigrants as subversives contributed to the passage of the Quota Acts, which effectively stemmed the flow of wanted foreign workers. Post-war employers argued for preserving America's traditional open door, but the negativity which they had assigned to foreign workers contributed to its closing.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9781501748332

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Capitalists and Immigrants in Historical Perspective, 1865–1924 -- 1. Harmonic Dissidence: Immigrants and the Onset of Industrial Strife -- 2. No Danger among Them: Asian Immigrants as Industrial Workers -- 3. Alien Anarchism: Immigrants and Industrial Unrest in the 1880s -- 4. Confronting the Barons: Immigrant Workers and Individual Moguls -- 5. Into the New Century: Economic Expansion and Continued Discord -- 6. Turmoil Amid Reform: Immigrant Worker Protest and Progressivism -- 7. Effects of War: Immigrant Labor Dynamics during the Great War -- 8. Addressing the Reds: Immigrants and the Postwar Great Scare of 1919–1921 -- 9. Restricting the Hordes: Implementation of Immigrant Quotas -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

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Robber Barons and Wretched Refuse explores the connection between the so-called robber barons who led American big businesses during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era and the immigrants who comprised many of their workforces. As Robert F. Zeidel argues, attribution of industrial-era class conflict to an "alien" presence supplements nativism—a sociocultural negativity towards foreign-born residents—as a reason for Americans' dislike and distrust of immigrants. And in the era of American industrialization, employers both relied on imigrants to meet their growing labor needs and blamed them for the frequently violent workplace contention of the time. Through a sweeping narrative of the time, Zeidel uncovers the connection of immigrants to radical "isms" that gave rise to widespread notions of alien subversives whose presence threatened America's domestic tranquility and the well-being of its residents. Employers, rather than looking at their own practices for causes of workplace conflict, wontedly attributed strikes and other unrest to aliens who either spread pernicious "foreign" doctrines or fell victim to their siren messages. These characterizations transcended nationality or ethnic group, applying at different times to all foreign-born workers. Zeidel concludes that, ironically, stigmatizing immigrants as subversives contributed to the passage of the Quota Acts, which effectively stemmed the flow of wanted foreign workers. Post-war employers argued for preserving America's traditional open door, but the negativity which they had assigned to foreign workers contributed to its closing.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 01. Dez 2022)