Sweated Work, Weak Bodies: Anti-Sweatshop Campaigns and Languages of Labor

by Daniel E. Bender

In the early 1900s, thousands of immigrants labored in New Yorks Lower East Side sweatshops, enduring work environments that came to be seen as among the worst examples of Progressive-Era American industrialization. Although reformers agreed that these unsafe workplaces must be abolished, their reasons have seldom been fully examined. Sweated Work, Weak Bodies  is the first book on the origins of sweatshops, exploring how they came to represent the dangers of industrialization and the perils of immigration. It is an innovative study of the language used to define the sweatshop, how these definitions shaped the first anti-sweatshop campaign, and how they continue to influence our current understanding of the sweatshop.

Genres: History

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Zach · Rating 2 out of 5]

this 200 page book would have made a great 50 page article.