Union Made: Working People and the Rise of Social Christianity in Chicago

by Heath W. Carter

In Gilded Age America, rampant inequality gave rise to a new form of Christianity, one that sought to ease the sufferings of the poor not simply by saving their souls, but by transforming society. In Union Made, Heath W. Carter advances a bold new interpretation of the origins of American Social Christianity. While historians have often attributed the rise of the Social Gospel to middle-class ministers, seminary professors, and social reformers, this book places working people at the very center of the story. The major characters--blacksmiths, glove makers, teamsters, printers, and the like--have been mostly forgotten, but as Carter convincingly argues, their collective contribution to American Social Christianity was no less significant than that of Walter Rauschenbusch or Jane Addams.
Leading readers into the thick of late-19th-century Chicago's tumultuous history, Carter shows that countless working-class believers participated in the heated debates over the implications of Christianity for industrializing society, often with as much fervor as they did in other contests over wages and the length of the workday. The city's trade unionists, socialists, and anarchists advanced theological critiques of laissez faire capitalism and protested "scab ministers" who cozied up to the business elite. Their criticisms compounded church leaders' anxieties about losing the poor, such that by the turn-of-the-century many leading Christians were arguing that the only way to salvage hopes of a Christian America was for the churches to soften their position on "the labor question." As denomination after denomination did just that, it became apparent that the Social Gospel was, indeed, ascendant--from below.
At a time when the fate of the labor movement and rising economic inequality are once more pressing social concerns, Union Made opens the door for a new way forward--by changing the way we think about the past.

Genres: History, Religion, Labor, American History, Church History, Politics

296 pages, Hardcover

First published August 3, 2015

About the author

Professor Carter (PhD, University of Notre Dame) joined the Valparaiso faculty in autumn 2012. He teaches a variety of courses on the modern United States and writes about the intersection of Christianity, politics, and reform in American history.

He is also an active member of the Valparaiso community. In December 2015, Mayor Jon Costas appointed him chair of the city’s Human Relations Council. In addition, Professor Carter is on the boards of both Project Neighbors and the Northwest Indiana African American Alliance.

Interests
Histories of Christianity, capitalism, race, and reform in modern United States history.

Reviews

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Carter argued that “Social Gospel” of Christianity embracing labor and being an advocate for working class issues was not simply the story of middle class reformers and theologians advocating for religious advocacy, but as much a response to working class members of Catholic and Protestant congregations pushing the churches to become more labor friendly. Carter argues that churches had been notoriously friendly towards capitalists and hostile to unions and socialists during the labor wars and strikes of the late 19th century that they were faced with a crisis of faith, with workers either leaving to form alternative radical forms of Christianity or stopping attending services all together in response to “scab” ministers. Social Gospel pushed for more labor friendly responses to unemployment and depressions rather than instinctive pro-capitalist positions, calling for churches to be cleansed of the wealthy’s corrupting influences. Still, churches early embrace of labor was limited to the conservative craft union dominated American Federation of Labor (AFL), who was avoudly unsocialist and at times anti-socialist, and called for those unions to push radicalism out, especially challengers like the IWW, and condemned violence. It did opened up space in church organizations for a left Christian tradition in the United States that lent support to workers fights and larger social justice battles. In fact, Carter argues that this tradition was crafted long before middle class reformers, as early as the 1860s. Carter also concentrates on Chicago, as a center of trade, immigrants, religious churches, and labor/radical organizing.

Key Themes and Concepts:
-Fear of losing cultural influence over working class people led churches to engage with labor by 1910s.
-Workers Gospel was to purify church of the influence of the wealthy.
-Fast feet: workers founded their own congregations or stopped going all together.

[Alexandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I cannot believe all those clergymen were like yeah, Jesus would be a scab. Be so serious right now, dude

[Gregory · Rating 4 out of 5]

Traditionally, the Social Gospel element of the Progressive Era has been understood as a largely Protestant, middle- or upper- class movement. Using Chicago as a case study, Heath Carter chronicles the role that workers, unions, labor agitation, explosive population growth, and immigrants played in the development of the adoption of the Social Gospel. His account focuses on the years 1867 to 1905. This is the story of how labor activists and Christian ministers, preachers, and priests became estranged from one another. In the 1867 general strike for an eight-hour day, Christian leaders generally supported the working class demands for the eight-hour day. As unskilled immigrant workers quickly grew to replace native born skilled workers in the ranks of the laboring class, these same Christian leaders became deeply alarmed about unrest. Events like the 1871 Paris Commune, 1877 Great Strike, the 1886 Haymarket bombing, and the 1894 Pullman strike only heightened their sense of panic. On the other side, laborers felt that the churches had abandoned them, adopted a form of prosperity gospel that applied only to the very well-to-do who could afford the pew rents, and had indeed corrupted the true messages and teachings of Jesus. Concerned about the exodus of laborers from the churches, as well as working conditions, Christian leaders edged away from their hardline position. They still condemned socialism and radicalism as they came to embrace a more conservative trade union approach in the spirit of the American Federation of Labor and its leader Samuel Gompers. Union Made is not about the application of the Social Gospel, but its development. This is an excellent book if you are interested in the Gilded Age, Progressive Era, Labor history, history of religion, or Chicago.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story goes that a small group of radical, white, male leaders created social Christianity, supported by the middle classes. Heath Carter's account of Chicago, labor and the churches offers a different tale.

In Union Made (Oxford), Carter tells about dozens of ordinary working folk, black and white, men and women, who played an essential role (along with much less heralded clergy). They were central in bringing Scripture to bear on the inequalities of the day.

Consistently they made it clear they were not rejecting Christianity or the church. Instead they were rejecting the form of Christianity and the church that was beholden to capitalist elites. They not only voiced their beliefs in speeches and newspapers but voted with their feet--walking away from churches that failed to support labor and joining those that did, where they could find them.

That's not how it always was. As Chicago exploded in the 1830s and 40s, rich and poor mingled regularly in the first, humble churches quickly thrown up in the booming city. But as more extravagant buildings were erected by the wealthy who began to pay well-known ministers far more than ordinary laborers, and as high pew rents literally relegated those of lesser means to the margins, the rich and poor divided.

Ministers were reluctant to criticize the business practices of their patrons which kept other church members in poverty. They helped perpetuate the myth that honest, hard work was all that was needed to raise anyone up, ignoring the playing field slanted in favor of the rich and powerful.

For forty years churches worried about unchurched working people all the while failing to support their concerns. The shift came in the late 19th century when labor movements were able to distinguish themselves from radicals and anarchists which Catholic and Protestant churches had long condemned. This middle ground gave churches the opportunity embrace labor concerns more and more. And they took it.

Carter's epilogue quickly summarizes the next hundred years from 1910 to the present. The efforts of church and labor and government made the 1960s "not only the most affluent but also the most economically egalitarian period in modern American history" (181).

Since then, however, working class Christianity has shifted to thinking like capitalist elites--"that prosperity came not through gritty organizing efforts but through individual access to divine power. Having flourished first at the grassroots, social Christianity withered there too" (182). Likewise since then, the gap between the ultrarich and the rest has widened to proportions not seen since the days of the nineteenth-century robber barons.

As a result of Carter (disclosure: the author lived with us for several months) researching rarely viewed archives, we have a vivid picture of what ordinary people said and did during the rise of "union made" social Christianity in Chicago. We also see how the people shape the church as much as its leaders.

[Neal Spadafora · Rating 5 out of 5]

I may being showing some partiality here, as Dr. Carter is my professor; however, this book was fantastic. "Union Made" puts the reader 'on the ground' of postbellum Chicago and gives much insight into the conversations, burdens, and happenings of the day in ways that many historical books do not.

[Mat Schuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thorough examination of a movement in Chicago that had echoes throughout the United States. Not only that, but a reminder of what has been in Christianity’s relationship to economic justice and what could be again, despite the obstacles present from those with power in churches; which, as seen in this narrative, is an opposition that is synonymous with the opposition of the past

[Edward Sullivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

An insightful scholarly study of the intersections of American Christianity and the labor movement, and the rise with of the Social Gospel.

[Sabrina · Rating 5 out of 5]

It'd been a while since I picked up and read a purely historical work, and this one did not disappoint. Great narrative and thoroughly researched, with a generous bibliography and endnotes section.

[Marius Bagu · Rating 5 out of 5]

A tour de force!

This book is a true masterpiece. Not only that I could not put it down, but I devoured it all together. Even though I have not read so much lately, I just had to finish it today, regardless of the fact that I should have been sleeping by now.

While I read about the impact of Christianity on the Abolitionist movement, Labor movement, Women's Rights, Civil Rights, etc. in the past, I had no idea that all these struggles for Justice, both Economic and Social Justice, human rights, individual freedom, etc. sprang and were imbedded so deeply in Christianity. Without the impact that Christianity had in the West, unfortunately, the West would have been a desolate, oppressive, backward, wicked place to live in.

But the West is as it is exactly because of a handful of men and women who truly loved and obeyed Christ wholeheartedly, and who truly loved their fellow neighbors as themselves. They fought on the side of the poor slave, of the widow, of the orphan, of the oppressed and abused worker, etc. And I am proud to be part of their legacy.

A few Christian heroes that I have learned about from the book were: Andrew C. Cameron, Maria Darker Wynkoop, Washington Gladden, Thorvald Helveg, James W. Kline, etc among many more. These were truly remarkable individuals, whose impact on the Labor movement in Chicago and the surrounding areas was immeasurable.

During the read, I listened over and over to the new album called "Horizons" by Starset. I am grateful for the fact that I could listen to their music while I read. This is the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ46V... Their music is really great and worked perfectly with the book. It truly made the experience exquisite.

This is one of the most outstanding books I have read so far this year.

[Eileen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wouldn't have discovered this book if I hadn't heard the author at a Lutheran Deaconess Conference meeting in July 2016. His scholarly work helped me to see the challenges that continue to face "the church"--those of us who are learning and growing in the Jesus Movement of today. How easy it is to let the dominant culture overcome us and distort our hearing and understanding of the radical nature of the Gospel. His historical overview also helped me understand the puzzling opposition to "socialism" [assumed by many of old and today to be synonymous with atheism].