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Frontiers of Labor: Comparative Histories of the United States and Australia

Online ISBN:
9780252050503
Print ISBN:
9780252041839
Publisher:
University of Illinois Press
Book

Frontiers of Labor: Comparative Histories of the United States and Australia

Greg Patmore (ed.),
Greg Patmore
(ed.)
The University of Sydney (emeritus)
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Shelton Stromquist (ed.)
Shelton Stromquist
(ed.)
University of Iowa
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Published:
15 March 2018
Online ISBN:
9780252050503
Print ISBN:
9780252041839
Publisher:
University of Illinois Press

Abstract

Australia and the United States have long been recognized as fertile fields for comparative history. Both the United States and the Australian colonies were “frontier societies” with considerable natural resources and without a feudal heritage. Despite their similarities, the histories of Australia and the United States are also marked by striking divergences, notably in the composition of their working classes, their labor relations, and their politics. The essays in this volume break new ground in comparative and transnational history. Together they offer considerable evidence to support the general proposition that despite similarities in the development of their economies and in fabric of their democratic institutions, the labor histories of Australia and the United States manifest notable differences. The essays in this volume make significant contributions to understanding the comparative aspects of Australian and US labor history in five areas specifically. They examine the divergent impact of the Great War on the fortunes of labor and socialist movements, the history of coerced labor, patterns of ethnic and class identification, the forms of working-class collective action and institution building, and struggles over trade union democracy and the viability of independent working-class politics. Additionally, several essays explore the ways in which radical labor and political activists from both countries developed transnational ties that cross-fertilized their respective trade union and political cultures.

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