Workers and dissent in the redwood empire /

Cornford examines in rich detail the evolution of relations between lumber workers and businessmen in the redwood empire of Humboldt County, California, during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He shows that a strong vein of moralistic radical dissent, derived from early America's democratic-republican ideology, permeated and lent a sense of continuity to both the political engagement and union activities of the workers, and set the workers off from other groups. Thoroughly researched, logically organized, and capably written, this model community study, prepared in the tradition of recent works by Alan Dawley, Paul G. Faler, Sean Wilentz, and others, makes an important contribution to labor, business, and social history.-M. Blackford, The Ohio State University

This excellent community history of the lumber region around Eureka, California, deserves a wide readership. Cornford (San Francisco State) takes on a big question: How did the radical ``republican'' tradition of the American Revolution lead to the conservative corporate hierarchy of the 20th century? His case study looks at how timber and sawmill workers' attitudes toward work and politics changed from the Civil War to World War I. The author sees 19th-century America's stress on equality as double-edged: critical of the corporate enterprise, yet accommodating to paternalistic capitalism. Nineteen hundred divides U.S. history between republic and empire; in Eureka, workers briefly developed a sense of class struggle before the mill owners permanently defeated them. Highly recommended. James W. Oberly, Univ. of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.