Mining Cultures: Men, Women, and Leisure in Butte, 1914-41 (Women in American History) [Hardcover]

Mary Murphy (Author)

Book Description

Series: Women in American History | Publication Date: March 1, 1997

Probing behind the "wide-open city" moniker Butte has worn so well, Mining Cultures shows how the western city evolved from a male-dominated mining enclave to a community in which men and women participated on a more equal basis as leisure patterns changed and consumer culture grew. Mary Murphy's engagingly written book is the first serious look at how women worked and spent their leisure time in a city dominated by men's work--mining. In bringing Butte to life, she draws on church weeklies, high school yearbooks, holiday rituals, movie plots, and news of local fashion, in addition to the more customary court cases, newspapers, and interviews. Her lively chronicle of the growth of consumer culture in Butte is richly illustrated. It will interest those in western and women's history, leisure and consumerism studies, and labour and immigration history, as well as general readers. A volume in the series Women in American History, edited by Anne Firor Scott, Nancy A. Hewitt, and Stephanie Shaw

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"With a keen eye for details of gender, class, and ethnicity, Murphy constructs a vivid account of life in an early-twentieth-century mining town." -- Rene M. Sentilles, The Journal of American History --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 279 pages
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press (March 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 025202267X
• ISBN-13: 978-0252022678
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,927,125 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A valuable addition to the recorded history of Butte, January 5, 2000

By 

Paul J. Rask - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mining Cultures: Men, Women, and Leisure in Butte, 1914-41 (Women in American History) (Paperback)

Probably no book can do full justice to Butte, Montana which, for 50 years up to the start of World War II, was the most interesting city in America. While Butte was a wide open, boisterous mining town with illegal gambling and prostitution operating openly and unabashedly, it had vast flocks of fervent church goers and it managed to nourish its small pockets of refined culture and art. Butte had its millionaires, its poor, its highly diversified foreign cultures yet proudly asserting it Grand Americanism.

With all of that, Butte was ugly, seared grey by acid fumes from smelters; it perched on a hillside spiked by mines gallows and blemished by countless yellowish mounds of ore tailings as if the earth had spilled out its guts like vomit.

Mary Murphy's book, Mining Cultures; Men, Women and Leisure in Butte, 1914-41 does an admirable job of touring around the edges of what was Butte during those years. She got at only the edges for those are the limits she set for herself. Well researched and documented, she was careful not to report her numbers in boring, mind-numbing detail and she served them up garnished by an assortment of interesting and revealing anecdotes.

Ms. Murphy's book is a valuable addition to a pitifully small collection of works on a city which deserves greater study.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating tour of social change in a smokestack city, August 6, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Mining Cultures: Men, Women, and Leisure in Butte, 1914-41 (Women in American History) (Paperback)

This is a fascinating look at changing manners and mores in a major industrial community during the two decades between the two World Wars. The city which Murphy dissects, Butte (Mt.), adds its own quirky character to this study. But you don't need to know much about Butte or mining to enjoy Murphy's engaging style, entertaining anecdotes, and keen insights about a turbulent period of social and economic change in urban America.