 | Manhood on the Line: Working-Class Masculinities in the American Heartland Subjects: Automobile industry workers -- United States -- History; Working class -- United States -- History; Sexual division of labor -- United States; Women employees -- United States; Discrimination in employment -- United States; Ford Motor Company -- History; Stephen Meyer charts the complex vagaries of men reinventing manhood in twentieth century America. Their ideas of masculinity destroyed by principles of mass production, workers created a white-dominated culture that defended its turf against other racial groups and revived a crude, hypersexualized treatment of women that went far beyond the shop floor. At the same time, they recast unionization battles as manly struggles against a system killing their very selves. Drawing on a wealth of archival material, Meyer recreates a social milieu in stunning detail--the mean labor and stolen pleasures, the battles on the street and in the soul, and a masculinity that expressed itself in violence and sexism but also as a wellspring of the fortitude necessary to maintain one's dignity while doing hard work in hard world. Stephen Meyer is an emeritus professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. His books include The Five Dollar Day: Labor Management and Social Control in the Ford Motor Company, 1908-1921 . |
