Full bibliography

This anthology consists largely of eyewitness accounts of - and often by - the working men, women, and children of Canada. Beyond the institutional history of trade unions and labour partiees are massive changes in patterns of thought, economic life, standards of living, and conditions of work. In these primary sources, we may glimpse these changes, see their impact in human terms, and hear the voices of the unorganized, the unemployed, and the oppressed, as well as those of union officials and skilled workers with hopes of rapid upward mobility. Most significantly, these documents suggest not only new directions for the student of Canadian social history, but also major revisions of some traditional assumptions of the historian. These readings - most taken from rare, out-of-print, or previously unavailable documents -- tell of life and work in an industrializing, expanding Canada; of conditions in mines, factories, farms and lumber camps; of the cruel exploitation of women and immigrant workers; and of the great migration in these years from country to city. They represent almost all the provinces and range over conditions in Victorian times to those faced today by field labour and immigrant men and women in modern sweatshops. In their own words, describing their dailly confrtontation with life, we can listen to a Calgary charwoman, a Japanese fisherman, a Cape Breton miner, a Jewish ragpicker, an Italian railroad worker, a Quebec garment worker, a Ukrainian farm-boy, and scores of others. Here is the most vivid account yet of the problem faced by Canadian workers, both native and immigrant; of their distinctive attitudes and traditions; and, above all, of their courage and bitter struggle for equality and a better life. The book as a whole is an important contribution to the movement in recent years to deepen and broaden our labour history. -- Publisher's description. Partial contents note: Introduction (pages 1-2) -- Working conditions, 1900-1918 (pages 3- 75) -- Poverty, home life, and leisure (pages 76-150) -- Women's work (pages 151- 215) -- Working conditions and the rise of the CIO (pages 216-306) -- Bibliographical note (pages 307-310).