Bodies of Work: Civic Display and Labor in Industrial Pittsburgh

Edward Slavishak

Published by Duke University Press 2008

Bodies of Work

Civic Display and Labor in Industrial Pittsburgh

Edward Slavishak
Edited by: Arjun Appadurai , Jean L. Comaroff and Judith Farquhar

In the series Body, Commodity, Text

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822389347

Overview
Contents

About this book

Cultural history of the relationship between labor and the city in turn-of-the-century Pittsburgh, which focuses on how the working-class body was used to symbolize Pittsburgh as a city of industry.

Author / Editor information

Edward Slavishak is Assistant Professor of History at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania.

Reviews

“Following several decades of scholarship demonstrating the centrality of working-class men and women to the history of American industrial life, this study reminds us of the very powerful role of intellectual elites in the development of popular images of workers’ bodies as both enhanced and broken by the industrial machine. Edward Slavishak challenges labor and working-class historians to demonstrate in even more certain terms than before the myriad ways that workers’ portraits of themselves influenced popular perceptions of their bodies during the industrial age.”—Joe William Trotter Jr., Giant Eagle Professor of History and Social Justice and Head of the Department of History, Carnegie Mellon University

“In Bodies of Work, Edward Slavishak constructs a fascinating web of visual and textual evidence, interweaving various discourses on industrial labor, the male body, masculinity, and the city of Pittsburgh. From his creative new take on the Homestead strike and his subtle readings of visual culture to his startlingly original analyses of worker fatigue, the injured body, and the ubiquity of prosthetic limbs, he presents a broad new spectrum of ideas and approaches to the study of industrial labor.”—Melissa Dabakis, author of Visualizing Labor in American Sculpture: Monuments, Manliness, and the Work Ethic

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
ILLUSTRATIONS Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
NOTE ON USAGE Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
INTRODUCTION Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1 The Magic of the Nineteenth Century: Industrial Change and Work in Pittsburgh Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	17
2 Working-Class Muscle in the Battle of Homestead Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	64
3 The Working Body as a Civic Image Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	89
4 The Pittsburgh Survey and the Body as Evidence Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	149
5 ‘‘Delicately Built’’: The ‘‘Problem’’ of Working Women in Pittsburgh Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	200
6 Hiding and Displaying the Broken Body Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	224
Epilogue. ‘‘That’s Work, and That’s What People Like to Watch!’’ Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	265
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	277
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	319
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	345

Language: English
Publisher: Duke University Press
Pages
- Main content: 368
Illustrations
- Other: 30 illustrations

eBook

Published: September 16, 2008
ISBN: 9780822389347