In The Labor Question in America: Economic Democracy in the Gilded Age, Rosanne Currarino traces the struggle to define the nature of democratic life in an era of industrial strife. As Americans confronted the glaring disparity between democracy's promises of independence and prosperity and the grim realities of economic want and wage labor, they asked, "What should constitute full participation in American society? What standard of living should citizens expect and demand?" Currarino traces the diverse efforts to answer to these questions, from the fledgling trade union movement to contests over immigration, from economic theory to popular literature, from legal debates to social reform. The contradictory answers that emerged—one stressing economic participation in a consumer society, the other emphasizing property ownership and self-reliance—remain pressing today as contemporary scholars, journalists, and social critics grapple with the meaning of democracy in post-industrial America. | Cover Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Acknowledgments Introduction. The Labor Question in the Late Nineteenth Century 1. The Cant of Economy: Narratives of Depression in the 1870s 2. Meat versus Rice: Anti-Chinese Rhetoric and the Problem of Wage Work 3. The Value of Wages: Historical Economics and the Meanings of Value 4. "Labor Wants More!": The AFL and the Idea of Economic Liberty 5. The End of the Labor Question Afterword. Residues of the Labor Question Notes Index Back Cover | "This is an important work, one of the most important recent books, not only in labor history, but in social theory. Filled with insights and surprising twists, it repays a careful reading and rereading. It is a model study; I have added it to my graduate reading lists and urge everyone to do the same."—Labor History

"Recommended."—Choice

"Currarino's book will enable readers to understand the transformations that took place during the Gilded Age, not only in the minds of workers but in American society as a whole. Altogether, the book is an impressive accomplishment."—Business History Review


|Rosanne Currarino is an associate professor of history at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.