Like a Family: The Making of a Southern Cotton Mill World

Fred W. Morrison Series in Southern Studies

by Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, Robert Korstad, Chris Daly

Since its original publication in 1987, Like a Family has become a classic in the study of American labor history. Basing their research on a series of extraordinary interviews, letters, and articles from the trade press, the authors uncover the voices and experiences of workers in the Southern cotton mill industry during the 1920s and 1930s. Now with a new afterword, this edition stands as an invaluable contribution to American social history.

"The genius of Like a Family lies in its effortless integration of the history of the family--particularly women--into the history of the cotton-mill world.--Ira Berlin, New York Times Book Review

" Like a Family is history, folklore, and storytelling all rolled into one. It is a living, revelatory chronicle of life rarely observed by the academe. A powerhouse.--Studs Terkel

"Here is labor history in intensely human terms. Neither great impersonal forces nor deadening statistics are allowed to get in the way of people. If students of the New South want both the dimensions and the feel of life and labor in the textile industry, this book will be immensely satisfying.-- Choice

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History, Labor, Read For School

500 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Jacquelyn Hall’s research interests include U.S. women’s history, southern history, working-class history, oral history, and cultural/intellectual history. She served as president of the Organization of American Historians in 2003–2004 and of the Southern Historical Association in 2001–2002. She was also the founding president of the Labor and Working Class History Association. She was awarded a National Humanities Medal in 1999 for her efforts to deepen the nation’s understanding of and engagement with the humanities. In 1997, she received a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship and UNC’s Distinguished Teaching Award for graduate teaching. In addition to her teaching and research, she served as the founding director of the Southern Oral History Program from 1973 to 2011.

Her most recent publication is "The Good Fight," in Mothers and Strangers: Essays on Motherhood from the New South, edited by Samia Serageldin and Lee Smith (UNC Press, 2019). Her next book, Sisters and Rebels: A Struggle of the Soul of America, is forthcoming from W. W. Norton in May 2019.

Reviews

[Kris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This history of the role that cotton mills in the piedmont had in developing the society and economy of the southeast is driven largely by the oral histories of mill workers. They were mostly born between 1890 and 1910 and usually came from rural farms - both pushed by depressed agricultural prices and the commercialization of agriculture and pulled by the possibility of improving their circumstances - to populate the workforce of the mills, bringing their rural culture with them to the mill villages. It focuses on the period starting from the 1880s and ending in the Great Textile Strike of 1934 and the beginning of the New Deal's NRA, pivoting on the role that WWI played in accelerating technological change. For the most part, it is about white workers, since black workers were typically excluded from jobs inside the mills. It pays special attention to the gendered division of labor and also child labor. It takes its title from the way mill hands described their communities - which, opposed to earlier histories, is not a patriarchal family with "millmen" (the owners) at the head but rather a more horizontal family of brother and sister mill workers. Though workers did attempt to form unions (and sometimes succeeded against fierce opposition from mill owners and police), more often they utilized their mobility in order to better their conditions. However, they were not docile workers and struggled against owners and supervisors on the shop floor regardless of whether or not they tried to form unions. The early 20th century was a period of great change, which included the advent of automobiles, radio, and movies, and this book in part tells that story. It does an excellent job of situating the position of workers and the mills in the broader context of the textile industry and the overall economy.

[Joe Vess · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book; thorough, fascinating and engaging.

[The History Mom]

Really interesting deep dive into the lives of textile mill workers in NC

[Elsa · Rating 5 out of 5]

As part of and Eng. assignment I used some of the chapters from this book that were available online from as academic journals. I found the stories of the people involved so moving that I needed to read more. The writers offer the history of the textile hill mill villages in the southern United States from its origins to its demise. If you enjoy reading about the history of your home town or history, you will enjoy the information provided here!

[Mark Bowles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jacqueline Dowd Hall, Like a Family; The Making of a Southern Cotton Mill World (1987)
1. Studies the establishment, growth, and development of Southern textile industry
2. Concentrates on the mill workers and not the managers
3. The story was driven by the workers narrative

[Elaine Cunningham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid, annecdotal social history. Despite being the work of six authors, the writing feels seemless.

[C · Rating 5 out of 5]

very good.

[Cameron]

ah public school history curriculum. You continue to disappoint me. Labor history! Who knew!