Customer Reviews

Bread and Roses: Mills, Migrants, and the Struggle for the American Dream

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It was mid-January in the year 1912. Storm clouds were gathering over the city of Lawrence, Massachusetts. But on this occasion the weather was clearly not the issue. Rather, this was the season of discontent for the tens of thousands of workers who labored in the dozens of textile mills that dotted the banks of the Merrimack River. The vast majority of these workers were immigrants hailing from all over Europe who had been attracted to Lawrence by the promise of permanent employment, higher wages and a decent standard of living. It all seemed to good to be true. And indeed it was. The realities of life in these mills would gradually fan the flames of rebellion. When affluent mill owners instituted what amounted to a cut in pay for their workers it proved to be the straw that broke the camels back. In "Bread and Roses: Mills, Migrants, and the Struggle for the American Dream" author Bruce Watson brings to life the tragic events of that winter in Lawrence. It is a story that needs to be told and one that our children need to read about.

As events unfolded in Lawrence the battle lines were quickly drawn. During this volatile period in American history labor disputes such as this were sure to attract a variety of charactors each with his/her own political point of view and each with an ax to grind. Labor activists would descend upon Lawrence sensing correctly that the time was right to advance their cause. Enter one Joseph Ettor. Ettor was an organizer for the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World.) He would prove to be the catalyst that would transform what was about to occur in Lawrence from a local dispute into an event that would attract attention nationwide.

As Bruce Watson points out the situation in Lawrence deteriorated rapidly. Although not all of the workers agreed with the strike roughly 2/3 of them walked of the job on January 12th. Mill owners such as William Wood of the American Woolen Mills refused to negotiate. Despite the appeals of Joseph Ettor and others violence would rear its ugly head on a number of occasions. As the strike progresses tensions between the workers continued to escalate. Those who chose to remain on the job were being threatened by the taunts and jeers of those on strike. It was an ugly situation and one that would take a great many weeks to finally resolve.

"Bread and Roses: Mills Migrants and the Struggle for the American Dream" deserves a spot on the shelves of every library in America. This is an extremely engaging and well written account of an very significant event in our nations history. Bruce Watson places the reader right smack in the middle of these events. You get to know all of the important players in this monumental struggle for the rights of the American worker. And at the same time you will gain an appreciation for all of those tens of thousands of working men and women who had the courage to say "emough is enough" and put it all on the line for what they believed was right. If you have a youngster in high school or college I would strongly suggest you get them a copy of this book. I read "Bread and Roses" in just a few sittings. I could not put it down. Very highly recommended!

I grew up in a town just 15 miles from Lawrence. Given this, one might think that this amazing piece of American history would woven into the local lore. Nothing of the sort. This is beautifully written, displaying exhaustive research and attention to detail. The lives of the immigrant worker community are poignant and graphic. Watson writes with a point of view, no doubt, and tells the story beautifully. I especially enjoyed the depth of understanding the author brings to the major players and important social themes of the period. Many of these same themes continue to play out today. Immensely good reading - couldn't put it down, especially the last 100 pages.

I loved this story! Many years ago, I read about "Big Bill" Haywood and about the IWW. Every detail stuck with me. Watson fleshed out the man well, as he did all the characters involved in the 1912 Lawrence, MA, textile strike. Nevada Jane, wife of "Big Bill," is a case in point. She's not a key player in this tale, but nevertheless she piqued my interest.

In fact, the "self-made" capitalist, who owned the mill, and the soldiers, who "owned" the streets of Lawrence, are mirror images of what the U. S. is becoming. However, I'm not the teller of this story. READ THE BOOK!

Imagine a time when there was basically no federal government. When whatever trouble people got into, they just slugged their way out of it while the whole country watched. That's the scenario for "Bread and Roses." The famous phrase comes from the 1912 textile strike in the mill city of Lawrence, Massachusetts but thanks to the noble efforts of strikers and labor leaders there, it now stands for solidarity, for compassion, for justice for the working class. And the book "Bread and Roses" shows why, sweeping you into an amazingly dramatic story.
23,000 workers from 50 nations walked out of the huge textile mills one bitter cold January day. The following day, a young man from the notorious I.W.W. came to lead them. Within a week, he had the diverse nationalities parading, singing, laughingly taunting the hundreds of militia men brought in to keep the peace. But then things turned ugly.
First, dynamite was found in the tenements. After it proved to be a plant, mill owners sparked more violence. A woman was killed and two IWW organizers were arrested for her murder though they were miles from the scene.
Enter the colorful "Big Bill" Haywood in his Stetson hat. At his suggestion, mothers sent their hungry children to Manhattan where sympathetic strangers paraded "the Children of Lawrence!!" up Fifth Avenue and took them into their homes for safe-keeping. The next time Haywood tried this move, police beat women at the train station and threw children into their police wagons, shocking the entire nation. And still the strike dragged on.
Relevant? A 1912 strike? There are those today who would like to take us back to that "innocent" time before the New Deal, before income taxes, before welfare. (There were also no child labor laws in 1912, though today's free marketers haven't gone so far as to advocate that -- yet.) Free market zealots see a utopia in hindsight but Bruce Watson proves the ignorance of such a dream. "Bread and Roses" shows the jungle that was America in 1912 and the daily class warfare that was always lurking just below the surface. Even if you've never read a labor history, even if you don't care at all about strikes or strikers, you'll enjoy "Bread and Roses" for its heart and its humanity.

This is a surprisingly exciting read. A 10 star book, at least. I can't imagine this history being told better although I don't know what others have written about this strike, other than a brief reference from the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World). Watson captures the importance of the IWW to this strike but also shows the great problems that the IWW had in holding on to the strikers after the strike ended.

So much detail but it flows so well. Watson seems to largely let the details tell the story rather than editorialize. This is history with the emphasis on history and not salesmanship. This is effectively a "you are there" episode accomplished in text.

What motivated Bruce Watson to do such exceptional work? I suspect that, unlike the author of "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, And Got a Life", Bruce Watson did not get anything like a $500,000 advance for "Bread and Roses". We need more people like Bruce Watson. And more money directed to support them: so buy this book!

So much about U.S. History I'm ignorant of. That a Kansas Socialist newspaper was our most popular weekly. That the IWW, afer having so much success in Lawrence, would be nearly crushed by the federal government. That one young man of the IWW, Joseph Ettor, would have such a profound influence of the Lawrence strike but die largely forgotten. That so many women would play important roles in a strike at this time. That within a year of the 1912 strike, the Lawrence strikers would be in denial as the IWW membership in their city plummeted: but there was a lasting impact on the strike on wages and working conditions in other cities, afraid of what the IWW and people of Lawrence had done.

The strike went from just Jan 12, 1912 to March 14 of the same year. But so much happened that it is amazing Watson was able to present it all clearly.

Imagine that after holding to such a hard position in 1912, the mill owner William Wood, would, about seven years later give his employees insurance, maternity benefits, sick pay, help them buy homes, provide English lessons. Yet die by suicide within another decade after losing his children.

These are powerful facts powerfully presented. At a time when globalism is weakening labor in the U.S. and everywhere else in the world, it seems worthwhile to learn what people did. And don't forget what Bruce Watson has done, by bringing that event to life again.

Before I read this beautifuly written, fascinating book I knew almost nothing about the Bread and Roses labor strike of 1912. Now I almost feel as if I lived through it - and given the climate for the average working person today, can see how the lessons and battles of nearly a century ago have never been more relevant. The characters - ordinary workers struggling for their fair share of the American economic pie and a decent wage and life for themselves and their children - are drawn so vividly you can practically reach out and touch the rough wool of their coats and smell the food they eat. The events, documented in exquisite detail, read like a movie. If you like history, or are just looking for an extraordinary story about the trials and triumphs of the average man against powerful and greedy adversaries, then I highly recommend this terrific book.

I first heard about the Lawrence strike in an Ani DiFranco/Utah Phillips piece a few years back, and while Phillips' take on the matter is a powerful message of the power of direct action, it has always had his anarchist/socialist/nostalgic fingerprints all over it (although that's what makes it so awesome, but that's another review).

Watson's masterful telling of the story of the Lawrence strike offers a far more sophisticated treatment, shining light on the many motives, both noble and less than noble, of the strike organizers and participants. It would have been easy for Watson to fall into the predictable "noble workers vs. inhuman bosses" routine, but he resists, instead showing the humanity of both sides. It is, of course, difficult to find much understanding or compassion for the mill owners, in this age of child labor laws, OSHA, and weekends, but their stories are explored nonetheless.

Reading this book while keeping up on the news (especially that news dealing with labor disputes), offered a profound experience for me. Today's CEO's offer PRECISELY the same excuses and arguments against health care and living wages the mill owners in Lawrence did against weekends and pay increases, i.e. the loss of competitive edge, the unwillingness of executives to part with automatic bonuses, etc. I don't know whether to pull my hair out that we are having the same struggle a century on, or to be optimistic that the historical precedents usually favor workers' rights.

All in all, a very engaging read, whether or not you care one bit about the labor movement. A truly poignant book. I can't wait to see what Watson has up his sleeve next.

I grew up in Lawrence and had several members of my family work in the woolen mills....

Although the strike was not talked about, I was very aware of how hard the work was and how much sacrifice was made by each family.

Sadly, the history of the strike was not taught in our classrooms - I strongly believe that it is as relevant today..... I urge everyone to read this book and to take it to your heart. Bruce Watson did an extraordinary job presenting this story.

I always was and always will be proud to be a member of one of those hardworking immigrant families.....and continue to be proud to have been raised in Lawrence.

Every leftist political movement has its `high holy days' of remembrance, or it should. The international labor movement has May Day and in the America labor movement today, Labor Day. There are, however, other days worthy of celebration by militants here in America (and internationally) like the anniversaries of Sacco and Vanzetti, the great general strikes of 1934 in Toledo, Minneapolis and San Francisco and the subject of this review the great `Bread and Roses' strike in the textile mills of Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1912. That, until recently, this heroic (and victorious) strike was not remembered officially under any conditions by that very representative working class city and that its continues to remain shrouded in ignorance tells as much about contemporary American labor as any other indicator. That ignorance is something that Professor Bruce Watson has with this effort attempted to remedy. As an important work of labor history Watson has done more than a commendable job. Moreover, because he has done such a scholarly, well-written and easily readable work today's militants can draw many lessons from that seemingly long ago labor struggle.

On completion of this book I was struck by the parallels between the conditions that fostered that 1912 strike, the social composition of that work force and the attitudes of those bosses and today's `globalized' capitalist working conditions. The ethnic and racial groupings today that make up the core of the American working class, for example, are somewhat different from those that fought the 1912 where South and East Europeans predominated. However, the much overused sociological term `melting pot' still applies to the extend that the working class is not heterogeneous in its racial and ethnic makeup, a factor that not only aids the breakdown of class unity but is, a more or less, conscious stratagem of the bosses to divide the working class at the base. Moreover, although we are not talking about fighting for nickel and dime raises like those asked for then today the wage system has created a wider gap between rich and poor that would not be unfamiliar to those strikers long ago. And certainly the bosses have not changed, although they are certainly slicker than in those days of William Woods and the other textile magnates. And they put their money where their mouths are, spending over a billion dollars a years to defeat unionization drives and strike action.

One question, on which there is no comparison, or none worthy of mention, is the difference in labor leadership as the 1912 strike evolved and today's labor leadership. This refers not only to the differences in political perspective of the Bill Haywood and Joseph Ettor-led Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and today's Democratic Party-embedded labor leadership which are striking enough but about the nature of society and politics. Fundamentally the old preamble to the IWW constitution drawn up in 1905 is correct in its assertion that there are two distinct and different class interests in the world and at the end of the day they are irreconcilble. Today's labor leadership acts as if there wasn't a capitalist that it did not like. An interesting sidelight to the IWW-led 1912 struggle was the attempt by the conservative traditional craft unions associated with the AFof L during the strike to break away from the bulk of the unskilled laborers who formed the core of the textile industry. That has happened in later struggles as well.

One thing that was clear then and has been muddied by today's labor bureaucracy (with no little help from social democratic and other leftists) is the role of the state. If any mass struggle in the last one hundred years points out the capitalist class nature of the American state it is Lawrence. At every critical point from the first day of the strike and from the lowest level of government the police and military power of the state was used against the working class and in defense of the interests of the capitalist class. This is the class struggle in the raw, up close and personal, that usually only gets exposed in pre-revolutionary or revolutionary situations.

If nothing else, whatever Professor Watson's personal political sympathies may be, he has performed a great service by placing the Lawrence strike in the context of the development of American capitalism, especially in its post-robber baron period; the development of the multi-ethnic working class; the role of the development of light industry and the Merrimack Valley in the development of American capitalism; the creation and furtherance of a radical response to the primitive capitalist production conditions; and, the role of the state in capitalist society. One may fault Professor Watson with a bit of a `kitchen sink' approach to this work when he brings in every possible event and personality that can reasonably or logically be connected with the Lawrence strike in any way. Even Marxists recognize limits to the interrelatedness of events in any particular situation. However, that is a small price to pay for this important addition to labor history. Kudos.

What can I add to the laudatory reviews that have already appreared about this excellent work? Bruce Watson has done a masterful job of presenting this important (though often forgotten) episode in American history in a moving and engaging manner. This book should be welcomed by serious scholars and casual readers alike. Watson's style is intelligent and straightforward, but he is also a seasoned storyteller, who is able to open our eyes to the unmistakble human story behind these historical events. We never lose sight of the human faces on both sides of the strike lines here, for better or for worse. Watson's sympathies are obviously with the destitute and downtrodden workers of Lawrence. But his tone is never shrill or partisan, and his documentation is first rate-- thorough and meticulous almost to a fault (Do we really need ALL of these footnotes? Probably so.) We too often forget at what a high price our "American dream" was purchased. How much less prosperous and comfortable our lives would be had earlier generations not dared to stand up to the powers that be. Watson does a wonderful job of reminding us of the price that those who came before us have paid-- and of our need to continue their battle for justice in our own time.