The Belles of New England: The Women of the Textile Mills and the Families Whose Wealth They Wove [Paperback]

William Moran (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0312326009 | ISBN-13: 978-0312326005 | Publication Date: March 4, 2004

This is a masterful, definitive, and eloquent look at the enormous cultural and economic impact on America of New England's textile mills. The author, an award-winning CBS producer, traces the history of American textile manufacturing back to the ingenuity of Francis Cabot Lodge. The early mills were an experiment in benevolent enlightened social responsibility on the part of the wealthy owners, who belonged to many of Boston's finest families. But the fledgling industry's ever-increasing profits were inextricably bound to the issues of slavery, immigration, and workers' rights.

William Moran brings a newsman's eye for the telling detail to this fascinating saga that is equally compelling when dealing with rags and when dealing with riches. In part a microcosm of America's social development during the period, The Belles of New England casts a new and finer light on this rich tapestry of vast wealth, greed, discrimination, and courage.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The huge, largely abandoned mill buildings of northern New England towns are the remnants of an industry that dominated the region and transformed the lives of its inhabitants, especially the women, for slightly more than a hundred years, beginning in the early 19th century. In broad, descriptive strokes, Moran, formerly a writer and producer for CBS News, recounts the rise and fall of the New England textile industry, from Francis Cabot Lowell's first 1814 mill in Waltham, Mass., to the flight South in the decades after WWI of mill owners seeking a haven from labor unions and the reasonable working conditions the unions had won. The enormous social changes wrought by the textile industry are the subject here, especially in the lives of women, whom it freed from servitude on the small farm only to bind them to the looms. Later, the mills' voracious appetite for workers attracted a vast influx of immigrants from Ireland, Quebec and eastern Europe, while generating enormous wealth for owners like the Cabots and the Lowells, who became the aristocracy of New England. The story of the mills as evoked here, with all its ironies, energy and tragedies, reflects the larger America these factories helped to shape. 16 pages of photos unseen by PW.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

This is a history of the textile mills of New England, the women who worked them, the owners who ran them, and the environment both physical and social in which they operated. A popular history written in a folksy style, it leaves out the analysis a scholarly treatment would provide but offers citations and a bibliography to give it authenticity. Moran tells the stories of many of the largest mills (in Lowell, Lawrence, and Waltham, MA), from their founding by Boston Brahmins to their ultimate demise in the 20th century. The longest section of the book deals with Irish and French Canadian immigration to these mill towns and the desperate attempts by these immigrants to make a life in their new surroundings. Difficult relations with the Yankees, isolation and discrimination, anti-Catholic violence, and monstrous health and safety conditions prevailed, making for engaged yet troubling reading. Moran's narrative of the workers' attempts to improve their lot through labor organizing and strikes is especially good. Moran is not a historian but a CBS News producer and journalist, and this is distinctly not a book of professional history. The author makes unnecessary comments about modern social issues and tangents that lead well beyond the scope of the topic. But his book is an excellent read, both gripping and informative. Recommended for all public libraries. Bonnie Collier, Yale Law Lib.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin (March 4, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312326009
• ISBN-13: 978-0312326005
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #636,120 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Before you complain about YOUR job, read this book!, July 19, 2003

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Belles of New England: The Women of the Textile Mills and the Families Whose Wealth They Wove (Hardcover)

The next time I complain about MY job, I'll try and spend a moment thinking about what it was like to work in the mills described in this excellent book. Deafness, arthritis caused by repetitive hand motion, young children put to work because their families were desperate for money, fires in the mill, job-related injuries, long hours of work, poor ventiliation and light - you name it.

I heard about this book while watching C-Span and today I'm ordering a copy for a friend in New England whose long-ago relatives came from Canada to work in the mills.

It has strengthened my resolve to visit Lowell, Mass. and see what has been preserved.

It's fascinating and enjoyable to read - I'm just glad I didn't have to live through the experience myself. Highly recommended.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Long Before Rosie the Riveter- Franco-American Women Worked, June 14, 2003

By 

Juliana LHeureux "Maine Writer" (Topsham, Maine United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Belles of New England: The Women of the Textile Mills and the Families Whose Wealth They Wove (Hardcover)

Very few books give enough credit, in my opinion, to the important role women played in the development of American society. French Canadian women are probably at the very end of a long line of feminist ethnic groups frequently overlooked for the formidable standard they set, later a prototype characterized by Rosie the Riveter during America's darkest days during the middle of the last century. The Belles of New England is a well researched history about the development of New England's dinosaur textile and shoe industries and how hard working immigrant women made moguls of their owners. Although the Franco-American woman were a large workforce in these now largely empty brick buildings, hopelessly stuck on the landscape of New England towns, they weren't the only ones to contribute to the industrial age success of these mega-industries. Still, Franco-American women were unusual. Largely from Quebec, they raised extraordinarily large families while working labor jobs to raise money for their extended families. Franco-Americans are different than other American ethnic melting pot varieties in that they could always go home again, to Canada, by train or by foot. But, they stayed, raised their families and contributed to the wealth of a few industrialists who probably never said thank you. So, author Bill Moran has said in "Belles" what the moguls couldn't even conceptualize if their lives depended on it to do so. Nice selection of historic photos, too. Moran gives long overdue credit to the women who helped make New England prosperous.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Readable History, August 10, 2006

By 

R. Crowley (Somersworth, NH) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Belles of New England: The Women of the Textile Mills and the Families Whose Wealth They Wove (Hardcover)

A fascinating topic with many parallels to today's influx of immigrants and the goal of gender-equality in the work place. This book is written the way history books should be written: readable and entertaining, and therefore informative and thought-provoking. Pay no attention to pedantic criticisms that author Moran is not a "historian" but rather a journalists; that is nonsense. Just read, learn, and enjoy.