Colliers Across the Sea a Comparative Study of Class Formation in Scotland and the American Midwest, 1830-1924
- List Price: $20.00
- Binding: Paperback
- Publisher: Univ of Illinois Pr
- Publish date: 03/01/2000
Challenging the prevailing exceptionalist paradigm of labor history, Laslett provides a thorough explanation of the American and Scottish miners' divergent approaches to collectivist solutions. He traces the progressive heightening of militancy and the rise of industrial unionism on both sides of the Atlantic as the coal mines became increasingly mechanized and as the interests of miners and mine-owners divided along class lines. Drawing on a profound knowledge of both communities, Laslett demonstrates that, with the exception of electoral politics, the process of class formation in Lanarkshire and northern Illinois was very much the same.