The Work Ethic in Industrial America 1850-1920

The Work Ethic in Industrial America 1850-1920
Author: Daniel T. Rodgers
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 325
Release: 2014-07-10
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 022613637X

How the rise of machines changed the way we think about work—and about success. The phrase “a strong work ethic” conjures images of hard-driving employees working diligently for long hours. But where did this ideal come from, and how has it been buffeted by changes in work itself? While seemingly rooted in America’s Puritan heritage, perceptions of work ethic have actually undergone multiple transformations over the centuries. And few eras saw a more radical shift than the American industrial age. Daniel T. Rodgers masterfully explores the ways in which the eclipse of small-scale workshops by mechanized production and mass consumption triggered far-reaching shifts in perceptions of labor, leisure, and personal success. He also shows how the new work culture permeated society, including literature, politics, the emerging feminist movement, and the labor movement. A staple of courses in the history of American labor and industrial society, Rodgers’s sharp analysis is as relevant as ever as twenty-first-century workers face another shift brought about by technology. The Work Ethic in Industrial America 1850–1920 is a classic with critical relevance in today’s volatile economic times.

Saving the Protestant Ethic

Saving the Protestant Ethic
Author: Andrew Lynn
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 361
Release: 2023
Genre: Capitalism
ISBN: 0190066687

"Going back to the Puritans, Protestant orientations to work and economics have shaped religious practice and wider American culture for several centuries. But not all strands of American Protestantism consistently yielded frameworks that elevated secular work to the highest echelons of spiritual significance. This book surveys the efforts of a religious movement within White Protestant Fundamentalism and their Neo-Evangelical progeny that steer tremendous resources and energy toward "making work matter to God." Today bearing the name the "Faith and Work movement," this effort puts on display the creative capacities of religious and lay leaders to adapt a faith system to the changing social-economic conditions of advanced capitalism. Building from the insights and theory of Max Weber, Saving the Protestant Ethic draws on archival research and interviews with movement leaders to survey and assess the surging number of new organizations, books, conferences, worship songs, seminary classes, vocational programming, and study groups promoting classically Protestant and Calvinist ideas of work and vocation with American Evangelicalism. Such efforts are traced back to early 20th century business leaders and theologically trained leaders who saw a desperate need for a new "work ethic" for religious laity occupying professional, managerial, and creative class work"--

Technological Utopianism in American Culture

Technological Utopianism in American Culture
Author: Howard P. Segal
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
Total Pages: 340
Release: 2005-11-07
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780815630616

Featuring twenty-five writers in all, this book includes Howard P. Segal's acclaimed work on utopian visionaries.

Sport in Industrial America, 1850-1920

Sport in Industrial America, 1850-1920
Author: Steven A. Riess
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 347
Release: 2012-11-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 1118537823

Sport in Industrial America, 1850-1920 presents the second edition of Stephen A. Riess’s well-loved synthesis of the development of sport during one of the most transformational times in the nation’s history. New edition maintains the book’s acclaimed level of research, analysis, and readability Explores topics including urbanization, ethnicity, class, sport in educational institutions, women in sport, and sport’s role in manifesting city, regional, and national pride. Includes an entirely new chapter on the globalization of American sport Includes a new bank of photographs and images. Features a newly revised and updated Bibliographical Essay