Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
1989
Abstract
In this ambitious volume the author interprets the nascent railroad labor movement of the late nineteenth century within a broad socio- economic framework. "Boomers," the subject of this book, built and maintained the railroad lines, serviced the locomotives and running stock, manned the freight yards, ran and conducted the trains. Although many of these men had transitory employment histories, others demonstrated both geographical persistence and upward occupational mobility within the railroad industry. As Shelton Stromquist demonstrates, strike behavior on the railroads of the late nineteenth century was related to railroad management strategies, the locations of railroad towns or railroad lines with respect to markets, competition, and division or functional status, the varying prospects of railroad workers for advancement, and the supply of railroad labor, as well as to more general economic considerations.
Comments
Published in Great Plains Quarterly SUMMER 1989 .Copyright 1989 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska—Lincoln.