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
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Length50h 59m

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
Length50 hrs 59 mins
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.
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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: The income and outlay of New York working girls
18MAKING BOTH ENDS MEET
19CHAPTER II
20CHAPTER III
21CHAPTER IV
22CHAPTER VI
23CHAPTER VII
24The Workers: An Experiment in Reality. The East
25PREFACE
26CHAPTER III A HOTEL PORTER
27CHAPTER IV A HIRED MAN AT AN ASYLUM
28CHAPTER VI IN A LOGGING CAMP
29CHAPTER VII IN A LOGGING CAMP (Concluded)
30The Workers: An Experiment in Reality. The West
31THE WORKERS CHAPTER I THE ARMY OF THE UNEMPLOYED
32CHAPTER II LIVING BY ODD JOBS
33CHAPTER III FINDING STEADY WORK
34CHAPTER IV A HAND-TRUCKMAN IN A FACTORY
35CHAPTER V AMONG THE REVOLUTIONARIES
36CHAPTER VI A ROAD BUILDER ON THE WORLD’S FAIR GROUNDS
37CHAPTER VII FROM CHICAGO TO DENVER
38CHAPTER VIII FROM DENVER TO THE PACIFIC
39Human Work
40I: INTRODUCTORY Summary
41I INTRODUCTORY
42II: MAN AS A FACTOR IN SOCIAL EVOLUTION Summary
43II MAN AS A FACTOR IN SOCIAL EVOLUTION
44III: CONCEPT AND CONDUCT Summary
45III CONCEPT AND CONDUCT
46IV: SOME FALSE CONCEPTS Summary
47IV SOME FALSE CONCEPTS
48V: THE NATURE OF SOCIETY (I) Summary
49V THE NATURE OF SOCIETY (I)
50VI: THE NATURE OF SOCIETY (II) Summary

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