1st Edition
Sweatshop USA The American Sweatshop in Historical and Global Perspective
For over a century, the sweatshop has evoked outrage and moral repugnance. Once cast as a type of dangerous and immoral garment factory brought to American shores by European immigrants, today the sweatshop is reviled as emblematic of the abuses of an unregulated global economy. This collection unites some of the best recent work in the interdisciplinary field of sweatshop studies. It examines changing understandings of the roots and problems of the sweatshop, and explores how the history of the American sweatshop is inexorably intertwined with global migration of capital, labor, ideas and goods. The American sweatshop may be located abroad but remains bound to the United States through ties of fashion, politics, labor and economics. The global character of the American sweatshop has presented a barrier to unionization and regulation. Anti-sweatshop campaigns have often focused on local organizing and national regulation while the sweatshop remains global. Thus, the epitaph for the sweatshop has frequently been written and re-written by unionists, reformers, activists and politicians. So, too, have they mourned its return.
Biography
Daniel E. Bender is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Waterloo (Canada). Richard A. Greenwald is Assistant Professor of History at the United States Merchant Marine Academy.
"Lest we be consigned to forget the past once again, these wonderful essays both remind us there is a history to the sweatshop and the struggles against it, and there are lessons for present and future struggles to be learned from that history." -- From the foreword by Daniel J. Walkowitz, New York University
"There is much nonsense written about sweatshops. Sophisticated economists say that sweatshops are good. Passive governments deny their existence. Sweatshop USA is an antidote to such callousness. Read this book and understand the history, causes and struggles against sweatshops. And when you are finished reading, join the fight to abolish sweatshops." -- Bruce Raynor President, Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE)
"Sweatshop USA is a must read for anyone interested in the political, economic, and social implications of the global sweatshop system, as well as anyone interested in the history of sweatshops in the USA
." -- History in Review
"This ambitious and finely crafted collection of essays...significantly enriches our understanding of both the first and second anti-sweatshop movements and invites activists to put this knowledge to work.
." -- American Historical Review
"Those interested in sweatshops should add Sweatshop USA to their reading lists. The editors have put together an excellent collection of essays that can be helpful in assessing strategies for improving labor standards and working conditions." -- Marsha Dickson, Industrial and Labor Relations Review
