Class and the Color Line , livre ebook
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English
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2007
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287
pages
English
Ebooks
2007
Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne En savoir plus
Publié par
Date de parution
24 octobre 2007
Nombre de lectures
1
EAN13
9780822390237
Langue
English
Poids de l'ouvrage
4 Mo
A lauded contribution to historical sociology, Class and the Color Line is an analysis of social-movement organizing across racial lines in the American South during the 1880s and the 1890s. The Knights of Labor and the Populists were the largest and most influential movements of their day, as well as the first to undertake large-scale organizing in the former Confederate states, where they attempted to recruit African Americans as fellow workers and voters.While scholars have long debated whether the Knights and the Populists were genuine in their efforts to cross the color line, Joseph Gerteis shifts attention from that question to those of how, where, and when the movements' organizers drew racial boundaries. Arguing that the movements were simultaneously racially inclusive and exclusive, Gerteis explores the connections between race and the movements' economic and political interests in their cultural claims and in the dynamics of local organizing.Interpreting data from the central journals of the Knights of Labor and the two major Populist organizations, the Farmers' Alliance and the People's Party, Gerteis explains how the movements made sense of the tangled connections between race, class, and republican citizenship. He considers how these collective narratives motivated action in specific contexts: in Richmond and Atlanta in the case of the Knights of Labor, and in Virginia and Georgia in that of the Populists. Gerteis demonstrates that the movements' collective narratives galvanized interracial organizing to varying degrees in different settings. At the same time, he illuminates the ways that interracial organizing was enabled or constrained by local material, political, and social conditions.
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Publié par
Date de parution
24 octobre 2007
EAN13
9780822390237
Langue
English
Poids de l'ouvrage
4 Mo
CLQASSAND THQE COLOR LIQNE Q Joseph Gerteis
QQQ Interracial Class Coalition in the Knights of Labor and the Populist Movement
C L A S S A N D T H E C O L O R L I N E
politics, history, and culture A series from the International Institute at the University of Michigan
series editors George Steinmetz and Julia Adams
series editorial advisory board Fernando Coronil David Laitin Mamadou Diouf Lydia Liu Michael Dutton Julie Skurski Geo√ Eley Margaret Somers Fatma Müge Göcek Ann Laura Stoler Nancy Rose Hunt Katherine Verdery Andreas Kalyvas Elizabeth Wingrove Webb Keane
Sponsored by the International Institute at the University of Michigan and published by Duke University Press, this series is centered around cultural and historical studies of power, politics, and the state—a field that cuts across the disciplines of history, sociology, anthropol-ogy, political science, and cultural studies. The focus on the relationship between state and culture refers both to a methodological approach—the study of politics and the state using culturalist methods—and a substantive one that treats signifying practices as an essential dimension of politics. The dialectic of politics, history, and culture figures prominently in all the books selected for the series.
C AND THQE COLOR L L ASS INE 8 interracial class coalition in the knights
of labor and the populist movement
JOSEPH GERTEIS
Duke University Press
Durham and London 2007
∫2007 Duke University Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper$
Designed by Heather Hensley
Typeset in Adobe Caslon Pro by Keystone Typesetting, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data appear on the last printed page of this book.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Republican Radicalism
2. Race, Class, and Republican Virtue in the Knights of Labor
3. The Knights of Labor in Richmond, Virginia
4. The Knights of Labor in Atlanta, Georgia
5. Race and the Populist ‘‘Hayseed Revolution’’
6. Race and the Agrarian Revolt in Georgia
7. Race and the Agrarian Revolt in Virginia
8. Class, Status, Power, and the Interracial Project
Appendix: Data Collection, Sources, and Methods
Notes
References
Index
vii
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211
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269
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
n this book, I examine the dynamics of organizing I across racial lines in two social movements in the US South during the 1880s and 1890s. The Knights of Labor and the Populists were the largest and most influential movements of their day, and they challenged traditional divisions of race. My goal is to provide a better under-standing of the sources and the limits of this moment of radical possibility. In particular, I examine the develop-ment of interests as a process within the movements’ cul-tural narratives linking race and class, and as an active process of negotiation at the local level. I advance three basic arguments in the following pages. First, the movements were both inclusive and exclusive at the same time. The Knights and the Populists in-cluded some and excluded others, and they changed over time. Despite a continuing historiographical debate over whether they were sincere or cynical in their organizing e√orts, I maintain that the better question is, where did the movements draw the boundaries between an ‘‘us’’ to be organized and a ‘‘them’’ to be excluded, and why? Second, I argue that the movements’ republican em-phasis on civic virtue o√ered a basis for cross-race orga-nizing, but also provided constraints. Previous literature, especially on ‘‘whiteness,’’ has documented how the re-
publican idiom was primarily used as a weapon of exclusion by white labor movements at an earlier period. I find that it both opened doors for some (black workers, particularly in areas where black civic life and labor organizing was well established) and closed it for others (especially new immigrants). Third, interests varied across local contexts, and they were continually renegotiated over time. The pattern of civic life in both the black and white communities was vital to the strength of the interracial project, as were the economic and political conditions that were beyond the control of movement members or potential converts. But it is not enough to pronounce the move-ments’ interracial e√orts as simply ‘‘successful’’ or ‘‘failed’’ in any given local area; the way both white and black fellow travelers saw the costs and benefits of coalition changed with experience. In writing this book, my goal has been to avoid the cavalier attitude with which both sociologists and historians have sometimes marked the boundary between their respective fields. The traditional defense of the disciplinary boundary has never made much sense to me, in large part because the scholars I most admire have always had a foot in both worlds. I am a sociologist, and my training in this discipline shows through in my analytical focus and in my pursuit of systematic data. Some historians have found this focus too rigid and have objected to the fact that with a few exceptions I have generally sup-pressed any lengthy discussion of the complex historiographical debates sur-rounding the Knights of Labor and the Populists. At the same time, some sociologists have found even a little historiography to be too much, and others have wondered why we should care at all about ‘‘failed’’ nineteenth-century movements. There is probably no such thing as a perfect balance, and it is not possible to please everyone, yet in this book I hope that scholars from many fields will find something of value. It is my aim to stand with the large and growing group of scholars who rely on varied analytical methods, an apprecia-tion for theory, and careful data collection. Many people and institutions have helped me to do this and to remind me why it matters. In the process of writing this book I have racked up a lot of institutional debts. A dissertation improvement grant from the National Science Founda-tion funded my initial data collection. Support from the University of Min-nesota in the form of a summer stipend allowed me to focus on beginning the revision of my dissertation into a book manuscript. My work would not have been possible without the libraries that I relied upon, most centrally the
viiiAcknowledgments
Walter Royal Davis Library at the University of North Carolina, Perkins Library at Duke University, the Library of Congress, and the Walter Library at the University of Minnesota. My thanks are due in particular to the editors at Duke University Press, especially J. Reynolds Smith, and to George Stein-metz and Julia Adams, editors of the series Politics, History, and Culture. They all spent more time than they wanted with the manuscript. I owe a very large debt to the Social Science History Association for providing an inter-disciplinary forum for this work, as well as for awarding to the manuscript the President’s Book Award in 2005. Portions of chapters 1, 2, and 7 have appeared inSocial Science History and in theAmerican Journal of Sociology,the and publishers of those journals have kindly allowed me to draw from that work. My personal debts are deeper and more varied than my institutional ones. Although the members of my dissertation committee are divided by geogra-phy, discipline, and institution, they helped me think through the initial research upon which this book is based. François Nielsen and Charles Kurz-man provided me with an intellectual home in the Department of Sociology at the University of North Carolina during my otherwise isolated final year of graduate work. Larry J. Gri≈n and Leon Fink set very high standards for good interdisciplinary work in the area of historical social science and also provided very good examples of how it could be done. Although Mike Savage did not directly serve on the committee, he played a large role in my thinking about class and historical sociology generally. My deepest thanks are due to Peter Bearman and Craig Calhoun, who provided to me intellectual guidance before and after my dissertation. Peter deserves special recognition for his long and di≈cult labor as my advisor and committee chair, even when his commitments had to be carried out at long-distance phone rates. Likewise, Craig has continued to provide insightful advice on both practical and theo-retical matters. There are other personal debts that I owe as well. During my time in North Carolina, Steve Pfa√, Rich Frankel, Je√ Wenger, Art Alderson, Inder-mohan Virk, Jim Moody, and Jim Kirby all provided friendship, encourage-ment, advice, and debates about the things that really matter in life. I have been fortunate to land in a dynamic and exciting scholarly community at the University of Minnesota, and many of my Minnesota colleagues have com-mented upon various parts of this work as it developed. Ron Aminzade, Doug Hartmann, Robin Stryker, and Penny Edgell in particular helped me to think
Acknowledgmentsix
