Brass Valley: The Story of Working People's Lives and Struggles in an American Industrial Region - Softcover

Brecher; Jeremy; Jerry Lombardi; Jan Stackhouse

4.5

6 ratings by Goodreads

9780877222729: Brass Valley: The Story of Working People's Lives and Struggles in an American Industrial Region

Softcover

ISBN 10: 087722272X ISBN 13: 9780877222729

Publisher: Stone Soup, Inc., 2011

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"A remarkable book. . . we glimpse the vast sweep of American industrial history over the past one hundred and fifty years. There is really no other book available which covers so many different topics in American labor and social history . . . Of great interest not only to labor historians, but also historians of business, women, blacks, immigrants, technology and cities. As a supplemental text in a variety of American history courses �it would be particularly valuable because it covers so many different topics in a clear and vivid fashion. Brass Valley will make a major contribution to our understanding of labor and community history. Even more important, it will stand as an eloquent and moving account of the lives and struggles of the thousands who have labored in the brass mills of Connecticut over the past century and a half." -- Roy Rosenzweig, George Mason.

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About the Author:

Jeremy Brecher, Jerry Lombardi, and Jan Stackhouse comprised the Brass Workers History Project.

Review:

"First its genius: I can think of no work, except perhaps Passing the Time in Ballymenone, that bring to bear so carefully and intimately the concerns and interpretations of the historian on the locality as it is perceived by its people; that is so sympathetic to that history and so grounded in the people's vision itself. . . It moves community history in all the right directions and it offers a model for other such efforts. . . It is by far the most ambitious, and in many senses, the most successful such effort." --Ron Grele, director, Oral History Research Office, Columbia University

"The most comprehensive social history of a city or region in 20th-century America yet to appear. . . great achievement in using oral history to explore work and community life in 20th- century America." --Gary Gerstle, Technology and Culture

"Approaches history with an intense, direct focus on people. . . a special immediacy and humanity . . . Avoids both romanticism and oversimplification. . . The key to the success of the book is the enthusiastic participation of the people of the Naugatuck Valley -- current and former workers and mill managers -- whose satisfaction at the prospect of participating in the preservation of their own history increased their candor and made it easier for them to plumb the depths of their own memories to create a record that has been organized and presented in a form that makes it accessible to all." -- Robert Asher, University of Connecticut, in Connecticut History. --Robert Asher, University of Connecticut, in "Connecticut History"

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