The Belles of New England: The Women of the Textile Mills and the Families Whose Wealth They Wove
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.36 (840 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0312301839 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 320 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2016-05-26 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
The enormous social changes wrought by the textile industry are the subject here, especially in the lives of women, whom it freed from servitude on the small farm only to bind them to the looms. Later, the mills' voracious appetite for workers attracted a vast influx of immigrants from Ireland, Quebec and eastern Europe, while generating enormous wealth for owners like the Cabots and the Lowells, who became the aristocracy of New England. In broad, descriptive strokes, Moran, formerly a writer and producer for CBS News, recounts the
A Customer said Before you complain about YOUR job, read this book!. The next time I complain about MY job, I'll try and spend a moment thinking about what it was like to work in the mills described in this excellent book. Deafness, arthritis caused by repetitive hand motion, young children put to work because their families were desperate for money, fires in the mill, job-related injuries, long hours of work, poor ventiliation and light - you name it.I heard about this book while watching C-Span and today I'm ordering a copy for a friend in New England whose long-ago relatives came from Canada to w. Disappointing for this reader Jeannie Mancini Although there are some very interesting tidbits to learn about the New England cotton mills written in Moran's Belles of New England, there was very little about the GIRLS themselves. The author takes you way beyond the life of the girls and digresses heavily into the realms of the mill owners, and of the many immigrants who traveled from Europe for various reasons, coming to America to gain jobs in the textile industry. Briefly mentioning why the immigrants were important would have been plenty, but the reader must endure long pa. Readable History A fascinating topic with many parallels to today's influx of immigrants and the goal of gender-equality in the work place. This book is written the way history books should be written: readable and entertaining, and therefore informative and thought-provoking. Pay no attention to pedantic criticisms that author Moran is not a "historian" but rather a journalists; that is nonsense. Just read, learn, and enjoy.
The author, an award-winning CBS producer, traces the history of American textile manufacturing back to the ingenuity of Francis Cabot Lodge. In part a microcosm of America's social development during the period, The Belles of New England casts a new and finer light on this rich tapestry of vast wealth, greed, discrimination, and courage.. But the fledgling industry's ever-increasing profits were inextricably bound to the issues of slavery, immigration, and workers' rights.William Moran brings a newsman's eye for the telling detail to this fascinating saga that is equally compelling when dealing with rags and when dealing with riches. The early mills were an experiment in benevolent enlightened social responsibility on the part of the wealthy owners, who belonged to many of Boston's finest families. The Belles of New England is a masterful, definitive, and eloquent look at the enormous cultural and economic impact on America of New England's textile mills