Full bibliography

Industrial capitalism was established in Canada in two distinct phases, as was the case in other Western countries. The ‘first industrial revolution’ — as it has been called — began in Canada around 1850 and 1860 and flourished in the 1880s due to the National Policy that was in effect at the time. The ‘second industrial revolution’ began in the early 20th century and was the result of a much more sophisticated capitalist economy, which saw the emergence of new and complex technologies and means of production, as well as corporate giants in the steel, automotive, paper and chemical industries, to name but a few. Although this second phase of industrial capitalism had a significant impact on the working conditions of thousands of men and women in Canada, recent historiography, despite being abundant in the field of labour history, has largely ignored the phenomenon of mass production that characterised this second phase. The author retraces part of this history through a study of the steel industry in Hamilton, Ontario, one of the three major centres of this industry in Canada. He examines the rise of the Steel Company of Canada and its predecessors between 1895 and 1930, the transformations that took place in steelworking methods at the time, and the labour relations that developed within this corporation in its Hamilton. --Translation of website summary in the French language