A Workforce Divided Community, Labor, and the State in Saint-Nazaire's Shipbuilding Industry, 1880-1910

Subjects:

• History » European History -- Modern/20th Century
• Multicultural Studies » European Studies
• Economics » Economic History
• Economics » Labor Relations

Reviews:

• [S]chuster succeeds nicely in describing and analyzing the growth of shipbuilding in Saint-Nazaire and the expansion....Schuster provides excellent examples of the ways in which shipbuilders could turn groups of workers against other groups, on significant occasions and undermining solidarities and a sense of community....This is good stuff indeed, helping us understand why no cohesive "working class" emerged in Saint-Nazaire and why socialists and union organizers had very limited, uneven success in the shipbuilding town, despite periodic strikes, here reflecting the primary of local conditions.
  —Journal of Social History Fall 2004
• [p]resents a well-rounded and convincing explanation for why socialism and syndicalism never took root amoung the shipworkers of Saint-Nazaire in the years before World War I. In doing so, the book helps us better understand why the French labor movement as a whole had so few successes in this era. It contributes to our understanding of working class formation in France by illuminating the various factors that molded the economic circumstances and the sense of identity of French workers. It also provides valuable information on the business history of French shipbuilding, and it attempts to clarify the bewildering intricacies of French shipping subsidies. For all these reasons, students of the social and economic history of modern France will find Schuster's book a welcome addition to the scholarly literature.
  —American Historical Review 2004
• [a] detailed and thoroughly-researched....[h]istory of French labor.
  —H-France Book Reviews 2004

• Endorsement From Peter N. Stearns
  Provost and Professor of History, George Mason University: This is a significant addition to the rich tradition of local studies on the French working class...a well-crafted social history approach, with important implications about the nature of industrial change.
• Endorsement From Professor Donald Reid
  History Dept
  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: In this well-researched monograph, Leslie Schuster takes labor history in a new direction by convincingly challenging canonical assumptions about skill, militancy, and politics among industrial workers.
• Endorsement From Herrick Chapman
  Institute of French Studies
  New York University: In this deeply researched study of the French workers who built ships in Saint-Naizares before World War I, Leslie Schuster challenges received wisdom about the history of working-class solidarity and politics.
• Endorsement From Judith F. Stone
  Professor of History
  Western Michigan University: Schuster has an excellent command of the multiple forces shaping working class experience: Republican state policies, uneven industrial development, organization of production, work cultures and local communities. She provides significant insights about the interconnections of state policies, industrial development, and twentieth century capitalism. Peasants and Workers requires readers to reexamine earlier assumptions and as such will be essential reading for those interested in French and labor history.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction
• An Industry Builds a Town: Shipbuilding and Saint-Nazaire
• Industrial Restructuring: State Intervention, Special Interests, and Unemployment
• Recasting the Shipbuilding Industry: The Labor Process and Social Relations
• Shipbuilder Communities: Urban Workers and Peat Cultivateurs
• Working-Class Politics
• Production, Community, Strikes, and Identity
• Bibliography
• Index