The New Labor History and the Powers of Historical Pessimism: Consensus, Hegemony, and the Case of the Knights of Labor

Fink, Leon

doi:10.2307/1889657

Cited by 32 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…If Andrew Carnegie was a captain of industry, the Knights of Labor was, as 'the largest and most representative labor body until its time -and probably the single largest unionizing movement in the Western World during the 1880s', 43 the captain of America's burgeoning organized labour movement. Membership was open to all workers: skilled, unskilled, women, immigrants, and even those sections of the middle class sympathetic to the cause.…”

Section: The Combatants: Carnegie and The Knightsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Political Economy of Andrew Carnegie's Library Philanthropy, with a Reflection on its Relevance to the Philanthropic Work of Bill Gates

Stevenson

2010

Library & Information History

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When it was announced in 1997, Bill Gates' library philanthropy programme attracted a tremendous amount of media attention. A central feature of that coverage was a renewed interest in Andrew Carnegie's library building programme. While identifying the historical similarities between Carnegie and Gates is an interesting exercise, failure to ground these comparisons in a critical policy analysis frame that attends to the political economy of largescale private philanthropy seriously limits, if not jeopardizes, the public library community's ability to respond to the broader cultural implications of Gates' library programme. Here, the radical philanthropic approach is used to frame a historical analysis of Andrew Carnegie's philanthropy as a response to the contemporary class warfare of the period, within which he was deeply implicated. Unpacking Carnegie's library philanthropy for its ideological importance in the struggle over the ownership and control of the means of industrial production provides a powerful analytic lens through which to view capital's updated hegemonic project, as reflected in Gates' philanthropy, which is designed to bring software and internet connectivity to America's public libraries.

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Section: The Combatants: Carnegie and The Knightsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Political Economy of Andrew Carnegie's Library Philanthropy, with a Reflection on its Relevance to the Philanthropic Work of Bill Gates

Stevenson

2010

Library & Information History

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“…Historical interest in the KOL stems largely from their claim to be one of the few North American labor movements animated by truly collectivist and inclusivist principles (Ware 1959; Kealey and Palmer 1981, 1982; Fink 1983; Levine 1983; Fink 1988; Voss 1988; Conell and Voss 1990; Marks 1991; Voss 1993; Babb 1996; Voss 1996; Phelan 1999; Weir 2000; Kaufman 2001; Biggs 2002; Gerteis 2002; Biggs 2003). The KOL extended membership in the movement to all workers, including women and blacks; a notable exclusion to their inclusivist intentions were Chinese workers (Levine 1983; Gerteis 2002).…”

Section: Opportunity and Arbitration Framing: Producerism Hegemonic mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Knights of Labour and the Failure of the Arbitration Platform, 1886–1887: Ideology, Hegemony, and Contextually Generated Opportunities for Frame Success

Hallgrímsdóttir

2006

The Sociological Quarterly

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This article examines the reasons why the Knights of Labour, a labor movement that enjoyed enormous popularity and success during the penultimate decade of the 19th century, were unable to construct a resonant cultural frame in support of their platform of arbitration. The theoretical framework employed in this article is constructed by importing two concepts from political process models of social movement action into culturalist accounts, historical environment (or context), and opportunity. This framework allows me to look at how historical environments offer transient openings for the effective construction of counterhegemonic or subversive collective action frames. I argue that opportunity for framing has to do with the intersection between the signification requisites of framing practices, and the systemic features of cultural environments. I find that the nature of this opportunity in the years between 1885 and 1887 helps explain why movement practice within the Knights of Labour diverged so significantly from the practices advocated by its leadership.

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“…During the 1880s in particular, the KOL's forceful critique of the expanding power of industry and of government corruption reflected and articulated the discontent of many North American workers. The movement's creation of a counterhegemonic value system based on cooperation, equality, and social responsibility held great appeal for the economically vulnerable (Levine 1987;Kealey and Palmer 1982;Fink 1988). …”

Section: The Kolmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Manly Working Man

Hallgrímsdóttir¹,

Adams

2004

Men and Masculinities

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This article explores hegemonic and counterhegemonic ideas of masculinity as seen through the political campaigns and programmatic appeals of the Knights of Labor (KOL) in Ontario, 1882 to 1890. The KOL was a movement that sought to unite the working class in opposition to the exploitation of elites. Central to the KOL's opposition was the creation of a counterhegemonic ideal of manhood. For the KOL, the denial of their rights as workers and citizens was intertwined with hegemonic conceptions of masculinity that denied them manhood. Formulating an alternative conception that portrayed working men as manly and members of unproductive elites as unmanly was, therefore, a central element in the KOL program of opposition. The KOL's construction of a counterhegemonic ideal of manhood that was, at once, challenging and accepting of the dominant ideal is illustrative of the significance of masculinity, and gender more broadly, to social movements and social debate.

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The New Labor History and the Powers of Historical Pessimism: Consensus, Hegemony, and the Case of the Knights of Labor

Cited by 32 publications

References 0 publications

The Political Economy of Andrew Carnegie's Library Philanthropy, with a Reflection on its Relevance to the Philanthropic Work of Bill Gates

The Political Economy of Andrew Carnegie's Library Philanthropy, with a Reflection on its Relevance to the Philanthropic Work of Bill Gates

The Knights of Labour and the Failure of the Arbitration Platform, 1886–1887: Ideology, Hegemony, and Contextually Generated Opportunities for Frame Success

The Manly Working Man

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