Running the Rails: Capital and Labor in the Philadelphia Transit Industry

James Wolfinger

Published by Cornell University Press 2016

Running the Rails

Capital and Labor in the Philadelphia Transit Industry

James Wolfinger

https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501704239

Overview
Contents

About this book

In Running the Rails, James Wolfinger uses the history of Philadelphia's sprawling public transportation system to explore how labor relations shifted from the 1880s to the 1960s.

Author / Editor information

James Wolfinger is Professor of History and Education at DePaul University. He is the author of Philadelphia Divided: Race and Politics in the City of Brotherly Love.

Reviews

Running the Rails blends labor history, political history, and urban history with impressive skill. It also deepens our understanding of Philadelphia and introduces Michael J. Quill—who is known best for his work in New York City—in a new context.

Peter Cole, Western Illinois University:

For those interested in Philadelphia, transportation, and labor, this book is a must.

Daniel Sidorick, author of Condensed Capitalism: Campbell Soup and the Pursuit of Cheap Production in the Twentieth Century:

This very readable book will be an essential source in Philadelphia history, transportation history, and labor history. Running the Rails is first and foremost an engaging history of the public transit industry in Philadelphia with a particular focus on the interactions between its management and workers over almost a century of private ownership of the system. This history, and the many important issues it informs, is one that must be told, and Running the Rails is the authoritative work on the subject. James Wolfinger contributes to current discussions in the history of capitalism, in particular the place of private ownership of public services and management strategies in controlling labor.

Zachary M. Schrag, author of The Great Society Subway: A History of the Washington Metro:

In his penetrating study of Philadelphia's transit industry, James Wolfinger shows how owners and managers used harsh working conditions, long hours, and trigger-happy strikebreakers to keep dividends high and payrolls low. Running the Rails gives mass transit its proper place in the histories of American labor and capitalism.

Eric Arnesen, James R. Hoffa Professor of Modern American Labor History and Executive Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs, The George Washington University, author of Brotherhoods of Color: Black Railroad Workers and the Struggle for Equality:

Running the Rails is a fascinating and compelling account of the history of Philadelphia transit workers over a very long period of time. It is a work of classic labor history in that James Wolfinger tells the story of a group of workers and their efforts to unionize and, crucially, of management's efforts to control those workers and destroy or challenge their unions.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Capital and the Shifting Nature of Social Control Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. Beginnings Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	13
2. Working on the Line Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	40
3. Time of Troubles Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	64
4. The Age of Thomas Mitten Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	89
5. Hard Times and a Hate Strike Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	122
6. Labor Relations and Public Relations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	160
7. National City Lines and the Imperatives of Postwar Capitalism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	195
Advances Hard Won and Well Deserved Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	229
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	237
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	269
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	283

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Audience: General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 304
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 16
- Images: 16
- Other: 13 halftones, 4 maps, 2 tables
Keywords: Philadelphia; public transportation system; welfare capitalism; public transit; labor force

eBook

Published: June 7, 2016
ISBN: 9781501704239