In Archives of Labor Lori Merish establishes working-class women as significant actors within literary culture, dramatically redrawing the map of nineteenth-century US literary and cultural history. Delving into previously unexplored archives of working-class women's literature—from autobiographies, pamphlet novels, and theatrical melodrama to seduction tales and labor periodicals—Merish recovers working-class women's vital presence as writers and readers in the antebellum era. Her reading of texts by a diverse collection of factory workers, seamstresses, domestic workers, and prostitutes boldly challenges the purportedly masculine character of class dissent during this era. Whether addressing portrayals of white New England "factory girls," fictional accounts of African American domestic workers, or the first-person narratives of Mexican women working in the missions of Mexican California, Merish unsettles the traditional association of whiteness with the working class to document forms of cross-racial class identification and solidarity. In so doing, she restores the tradition of working women's class protest and dissent, shows how race and gender are central to class identity, and traces the ways working women understood themselves and were understood as workers and class subjects.

Excerpt from A Handbook of Labor Literature: Being a Classified and Annotated List of the More Important Books and Pamphlets in the English Language Many libraries are still neglectful of collecting this material, notwithstanding a new appreciation of its value. It is hoped that this book will help to make these publications accessible to the general reader, and to follow out this idea the addresses of societies will be found in the list of publishers, appended. It has been possible to omit the periodical literature, which is very important, because it is already so well indexed. "Poole's Index," beginning with 1802 and brought down to the present time by the "Annual Literary Index," with the "Cumulative Index" and the index in each number of the "Review of Reviews" makes the periodical literature always accessible down to the present month. It is difficult to know how to make acknowledgment of the assistance received inthe compilation of this work. Suggestions have been received from Professors Jeremiah W. Jenks, Richard T. Ely, Edward W. Bemis and John R. Commons, Mrs. Eliza W. Twitchell, Mr. James F. Rhodes, Mr. Benjamin R. Tucker; and most valuable assistance from Dr. Frederic W. Speirs, Dr. Henry R. Seager and Mr. Morrison I. Swift. Dr. Seager and Dr. Speirs have been especially helpful in reading both manuscript and proof. Personally the compiler is indebted to Miss Elizabeth Marot, who has made the completion of the work possible, for her tireless assistance in copying and recopying manuscript. And it is a pleasure to have at last an opportunity to thank the assistants of the following libraries for their kindness in complying with requests which involved more than their usual efforts in behalf of readers. These libraries are the Library of the Philadelphia Library Association, the Library of the Drexel Institute, the Library of the University of Pennsylvania, the Mercantile Library of Philadelphia, the Library of Columbia College, the Library of the Department of Labor at Washington and the Library of the British Museum. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

In the three decades after 1885, a virtual explosion in the nation's print media—newspaper tabloids, inexpensive magazines, and best-selling books—vaulted the American writer to unprecedented heights of cultural and political influence. The Labor of Words traces the impact of this mass literary marketplace on Progressive era writers. Using the works and careers of Jack London, Upton Sinclair, David Graham Phillips, and Lincoln Steffens as case studies, Christopher P. Wilson measures the advantages and costs of the new professional literary role and captures the drama of this transformative epoch in American journalism and letters.