Workers' Reality: 5 Classic Books on Life, Labor, and Survival
Classic Writings on Labor, Poverty, Gender, and Survival in Industrial AmericaBy Walter A. Wyckoff, Edith Wyatt, Sue Ainslie Clark, John C. Cobden, Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Length51h
About this audiobook
Workers' Reality gathers five classic accounts of life, labor, and survival into a bracing panorama of the modern social world. Moving among reportage, social observation, reform writing, and fiction, the volume examines wage work, poverty, gendered dependence, industrial discipline, and the precarious search for dignity. Its juxtaposition of immersive investigation with imaginative narrative reveals how literary form itself became a means of making labor visible. The contributors represent a vital constellation of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century American social critics and writers. Their work emerges from the Progressive Era's investigations of urbanization, inequality, women's changing economic roles, and the consequences of industrial capitalism. Across differing class positions, professional experiences, and rhetorical approaches, these voices bring workers' material conditions into conversation with debates over reform, domesticity, citizenship, and social responsibility. The collection therefore illuminates both the documentary impulse and the ethical imagination that shaped American writing about labor. This volume is especially valuable for readers seeking multiple entry points into labor history and literary history at once. It invites comparison among styles and perspectives while preserving the urgency of lived experience. Students, scholars, and general readers alike will find in these works an instructive, humane dialogue about work's burdens, its social meanings, and the enduring struggle to survive with dignity.
Audiobook details
GenrePsychology, Literary Classics
Length51 hrs
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateMar 4, 2025
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1The White Slaves of England
2PREFACE.
3CHAPTER I.
4CHAPTER II.
5CHAPTER III.
Show all chaptersShow less
6CHAPTER IV.
7CHAPTER V.
8CHAPTER VI.
9CHAPTER VII. (pt. 1)
10CHAPTER VII. (pt. 2)
11CHAPTER VIII.
12CHAPTER IX.
13CHAPTER X.
14CHAPTER XI.
15CHAPTER XII.
16Making Both Ends Meet: The income and outlay of New York working girls
17MAKING BOTH ENDS MEET
18CHAPTER II
19CHAPTER III
20CHAPTER IV
21CHAPTER VI
22CHAPTER VII
23The Workers: An Experiment in Reality. The East
24PREFACE
25CHAPTER III A HOTEL PORTER
26CHAPTER IV A HIRED MAN AT AN ASYLUM
27CHAPTER VI IN A LOGGING CAMP
28CHAPTER VII IN A LOGGING CAMP (Concluded)
29The Workers: An Experiment in Reality. The West
30THE WORKERS CHAPTER I THE ARMY OF THE UNEMPLOYED
31CHAPTER II LIVING BY ODD JOBS
32CHAPTER III FINDING STEADY WORK
33CHAPTER IV A HAND-TRUCKMAN IN A FACTORY
34CHAPTER V AMONG THE REVOLUTIONARIES
35CHAPTER VI A ROAD BUILDER ON THE WORLD’S FAIR GROUNDS
36CHAPTER VII FROM CHICAGO TO DENVER
37CHAPTER VIII FROM DENVER TO THE PACIFIC
38Human Work
39I: INTRODUCTORY Summary
40I INTRODUCTORY
41II: MAN AS A FACTOR IN SOCIAL EVOLUTION Summary
42II MAN AS A FACTOR IN SOCIAL EVOLUTION
43III: CONCEPT AND CONDUCT Summary
44III CONCEPT AND CONDUCT
45IV: SOME FALSE CONCEPTS Summary
46IV SOME FALSE CONCEPTS
47V: THE NATURE OF SOCIETY (I) Summary
48V THE NATURE OF SOCIETY (I)
49VI: THE NATURE OF SOCIETY (II) Summary
50VI THE NATURE OF SOCIETY (II)
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