working-class culture in third republic France
- Categories
- Book/Boek
- Creator
- Chenut, Helen Harden
- Publish Year
- 2006
- Shelfmark
- FR 52 2006
- Thesaurus
- arbeid, arbeidsmarkt, industrie, textielindustrie, sociale klasse, vakbonden, politieke partijen, kapitalisme, Frankrijk, 19e eeuw, 20e eeuw
- Description
- The years of the Third Republic (1870-1940) in France were ones of social and economic transformation as workers struggled to defend their rights in the face of growing industrial capitalism. Chenut paints the picture of working life during these years by following four generations of laboring women and men in one community, the textile town of Troyes in the Champagne region. In Troyes workers were locked in an relationship with mill owners, whose monopoly over the labor market in a single-industry town largely determined the workers' future. And yet workers managed to create a counterculture of resistance by founding labor unions, consumer cooperatives, and socialist parties through which they were able to implement change. Women were key actors in this struggle as their garment-making skills became increasingly important to the growing productivity of the knitted textile industry.