[PEN-L:6058] Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Brad De Long on working hours

[Mark Rickling <rickling@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Brad De Long wrote:

>>Also, industrial capitalism has led to a qualitative change in the nature
>>and pace of work, often for the worse. In addition to Thompson, see the
>>work of Herbert Gutman. No more drinking on the job, for instance.
>>
>
>I don't know about this. It seems to me that in historical
>perspective--relative, say, to being a field slave at
>Monticello--conditions of work here and now under modern industrial
>capitalism are pretty good...

Were I perverse I'd cite Fogel and Engerman's data concerning slaves
vis-a-vis contemporary industrial workers in Europe.

It is true that Gutman's work has been criticized for not dealing with race
in a satisfactory manner. I don't know if that is your point or not. In
"Work, Culture, and Society in Industrializing America" Gutman argues that
the human components of the Age of Industrialization were ill suited to the
demands of factory life. Foreign and internal immigrants were familiar with
the regimen of agrarian rhythms and the relatively self-directed work of
the artisan. Thus, their protests against factory life took predictable
forms. Industrial workers, used to what Thompson termed the "alternate
bouts of intense labour and of idleness wherever men were in control of
their working lives," constantly challenged factory rules, which demanded a
more consistent effort. See also Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times for a
visual presentation of these ideas.

But don't let me shake your faith in the march of Progress. I have no doubt
that you're able to cite whatever horrendous antecedent necessary to make
everything today look like peaches and cream.

mark


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