Pub Date : 2020-04-15DOI: 10.7591/cornell/9781501748318.003.0011
Robert F. Zeidel
This epilogue discusses how closing America's proverbial gates to the influx of European and Asian laborers ended the decades-long era when industrialization and immigration had combined to transform the United States. Big business had come to dominate the American economy, and millions of working-class foreigners had extensively increased its ethnic diversity. Their nexus created numerous benefits, yet it also engendered a host of socioeconomic maladies. The tragedy of 1886, or 1892, or 1919–1920, was not necessarily the failure of socialism or anarchism to wage a successful revolution against American capitalism. Indeed, whether the doctrines advocated by working-class radicals would have made the United States a better nation invites speculation that exceeds the realm of historical analysis. Ultimately, industrial-era Americans betrayed their most fundamental values. While they welcomed the arrival of immigrant workers who would transform the United States into a commercial giant and produce unparalleled economic gain, they stifled those who demanded radical alterations to the capitalist system in which they toiled, dismissing their alternative doctrines as un-American. Instead of allowing debate and considering the legitimacy of the workers' grievances, they branded their beliefs and behaviors as subversive, and identified their origins as inherently foreign, as having no place in and being inimical to the essence of the United States.
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Pub Date : 2020-04-15DOI: 10.7591/cornell/9781501748318.003.0002
Robert F. Zeidel
This chapter discusses how developments during the preceding thirty years, culminating in the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, set the stage for future immigrant-related labor strife. During those years, American industrialization began in earnest, engendering a host of socioeconomic changes. Increased large-scale production led to a growing demand for workers, and when the domestic labor force could not meet employers' needs or would not accept their offered wages, business leaders turned to immigrants. The pull of American economic opportunity, coupled with the paucity of that which was available in the Old World, attracted the first waves of industrial-era aliens. Coming from a host of foreign nations, their presence would create an increasingly heterogeneous population. This in and of itself troubled some Americans, but industrialization also spawned the creation of a nascent proletariat, an effectively permanent working class. As tensions rose between it and the agents of capital, culminating with the Great Strike, employers increasingly emphasized a connection between foreigners and worker radicalism. Business leaders recognized immigrants' essential contribution to American commercial growth but also identified the foreigners and their imported ideologies as the reason why the United States appeared to be on the eve of destruction. Associated developments would shape succeeding decades of ethnically influenced and class-based economic tensions.
{"title":"Harmonic Dissidence","authors":"Robert F. Zeidel","doi":"10.7591/cornell/9781501748318.003.0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7591/cornell/9781501748318.003.0002","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter discusses how developments during the preceding thirty years, culminating in the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, set the stage for future immigrant-related labor strife. During those years, American industrialization began in earnest, engendering a host of socioeconomic changes. Increased large-scale production led to a growing demand for workers, and when the domestic labor force could not meet employers' needs or would not accept their offered wages, business leaders turned to immigrants. The pull of American economic opportunity, coupled with the paucity of that which was available in the Old World, attracted the first waves of industrial-era aliens. Coming from a host of foreign nations, their presence would create an increasingly heterogeneous population. This in and of itself troubled some Americans, but industrialization also spawned the creation of a nascent proletariat, an effectively permanent working class. As tensions rose between it and the agents of capital, culminating with the Great Strike, employers increasingly emphasized a connection between foreigners and worker radicalism. Business leaders recognized immigrants' essential contribution to American commercial growth but also identified the foreigners and their imported ideologies as the reason why the United States appeared to be on the eve of destruction. Associated developments would shape succeeding decades of ethnically influenced and class-based economic tensions.","PeriodicalId":269093,"journal":{"name":"Robber Barons and Wretched Refuse","volume":"32 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124476751","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-04-15DOI: 10.7591/cornell/9781501748318.003.0009
Robert F. Zeidel
This chapter describes how fear of radicalism defined the post-Great War Red Scare. Announcement on November 11, 1919, of an armistice ending the fighting in Europe had given Americans hope of a return to what future president Warren G. Harding would call normalcy, a renewed opportunity for the nation to enjoy its myriad benefits. Yet at least immediately this was not to be the case. Multiple manifestations of class-based dissent, in the form of strikes, protests, and horrific acts of violence, put the nation on edge. Much of the fervor focused on immigrants, as it had since the onset of industrialization, and Americans again turned their attention to the eradication of immigrant-engendered subversion. Ultimately, reaction to this Red Scare would set the stage for the implementation of new and more severe immigration policies.
本章描述了对激进主义的恐惧如何定义了一战后的红色恐慌。1919年11月11日，欧洲战争的停战协议宣告结束，这给了美国人回归未来总统沃伦·g·哈丁(Warren G. Harding)所说的常态的希望，给了这个国家享受各种福利的新机会。然而，至少现在情况并非如此。以罢工、抗议和可怕的暴力行为为形式的以阶级为基础的不同意见的多种表现，使这个国家处于紧张状态。大部分的热情集中在移民身上，就像工业化开始以来一样，美国人再次把注意力转向根除移民带来的颠覆。最终，对这场红色恐慌的反应将为实施新的、更严厉的移民政策奠定基础。
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Pub Date : 2020-04-15DOI: 10.7591/9781501748332-006
Robert F. Zeidel
{"title":"4. Confronting the Barons: Immigrant Workers and Individual Moguls","authors":"Robert F. Zeidel","doi":"10.7591/9781501748332-006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501748332-006","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":269093,"journal":{"name":"Robber Barons and Wretched Refuse","volume":"26 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126251808","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-04-15DOI: 10.7591/9781501748332-011
{"title":"9. Restricting the Hordes: Implementation of Immigrant Quotas","authors":"","doi":"10.7591/9781501748332-011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501748332-011","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":269093,"journal":{"name":"Robber Barons and Wretched Refuse","volume":"2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122284927","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-04-15DOI: 10.7591/cornell/9781501748318.003.0003
Robert F. Zeidel
This chapter examines how numerous companies sought the services of Asian immigrants. Efficiency, availability, and manageability, along with the fact that they would work for lower wages than white workers, made the Chinese an appealing source of labor to railroads and other businesses. Yet they remained desirable only so long as they met expectations of compliance and placidity. Employers would no more accept challenges to authority and prerogative from the Asians than they would from members of any other ethnic group. Although the Chinese escaped association with specific radical ideologies, such as anarchism or socialism, managers did not consider their assertions of agency to be any less subversive. Labor radicalism emanating from any source drew censure for being un-American. To some critics, Chinese immigrants lacked the wherewithal ever to become proper Americans. Their place of origin, sociocultural characteristics, and physical appearance engendered intense bigotry. Racially biased perceptions also came to justify animus on the part of other workers, who saw the Chinese as competitors whose low standards of living, greatly inferior to those of American laborers, enabled them to work for significantly lower wages. Enmity ultimately led to statutory discriminations.
{"title":"No Danger among Them","authors":"Robert F. Zeidel","doi":"10.7591/cornell/9781501748318.003.0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7591/cornell/9781501748318.003.0003","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter examines how numerous companies sought the services of Asian immigrants. Efficiency, availability, and manageability, along with the fact that they would work for lower wages than white workers, made the Chinese an appealing source of labor to railroads and other businesses. Yet they remained desirable only so long as they met expectations of compliance and placidity. Employers would no more accept challenges to authority and prerogative from the Asians than they would from members of any other ethnic group. Although the Chinese escaped association with specific radical ideologies, such as anarchism or socialism, managers did not consider their assertions of agency to be any less subversive. Labor radicalism emanating from any source drew censure for being un-American. To some critics, Chinese immigrants lacked the wherewithal ever to become proper Americans. Their place of origin, sociocultural characteristics, and physical appearance engendered intense bigotry. Racially biased perceptions also came to justify animus on the part of other workers, who saw the Chinese as competitors whose low standards of living, greatly inferior to those of American laborers, enabled them to work for significantly lower wages. Enmity ultimately led to statutory discriminations.","PeriodicalId":269093,"journal":{"name":"Robber Barons and Wretched Refuse","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129491539","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-04-15DOI: 10.7591/9781501748332-005
Robert F. Zeidel
{"title":"3. Alien Anarchism: Immigrants and Industrial Unrest in the 1880s","authors":"Robert F. Zeidel","doi":"10.7591/9781501748332-005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501748332-005","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":269093,"journal":{"name":"Robber Barons and Wretched Refuse","volume":"23 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114914333","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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