The Autobiography of Mother Jones - Softcover

Jones, Mary Harris

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1515031675 ISBN 13: 9781515031673

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2015

Synopsis

Mary Harris "Mother" Jones (1837– 30 November 1930) was an Irish-born American schoolteacher and dressmaker who became a prominent organized labor representative and community organizer. She helped coordinate major strikes and cofounded the Industrial Workers of the World. I was born in the city of Cork, Ireland, in 1830. My people were poor. For generations they had fought for Ireland's freedom. Many of my folks have died in that struggle. My father, Richard Harris, came to America in 1835, and as soon as he had become an American citizen he sent for his family. His work as a laborer with railway construction crews took him to Toronto, Canada. Here I was brought up but always as the child of an American citizen. Of that citizenship I have ever been proud.

About this title

About the Author:

Mary Harris "Mother" Jones (1837– 30 November 1930) was an Irish-born American schoolteacher and dressmaker who became a prominent organized labor representative and community organizer. She helped coordinate major strikes and cofounded the Industrial Workers of the World. Jones worked as a teacher and dressmaker, but after her husband and four children all died of yellow fever in 1867 and her dress shop was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, she began working as an organizer for the Knights of Labor and the United Mine Workers union. From 1897, at about 60 years of age, she was known as Mother Jones. In 1902 she was called "the most dangerous woman in America" for her success in organizing mine workers and their families against the mine owners. In 1903, to protest the lax enforcement of the child labor laws in the Pennsylvania mines and silk mills, she organized a children's march from Philadelphia to the home of President Theodore Roosevelt in New York. Mother Jones magazine, established in 1976, is named for her.

Review:

This book is a great piece of working-class literature--indeed, it is probably the most readable book in the whole field of American labor history.--from the Afterword by Fred Thompson"Mother Jones never quailed or ran away. Her deep convictions and fearless soul always drew her to seek the spot where the fight was hottest and the danger greatest." --from the Introduction by Clarence Darrow

About this edition

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1515031675
• ISBN 13: 9781515031673
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 146