Table of Contents
Contents
Introduction 1
- North Berkshire Industrializes 29
- “Tell Me What Were Their Names . . .?” 55
- Three Distinctive Nineteenth-Century Workplaces 59
- The Knights of Labor, Worker Culture and Celebration of Labor Day 94
- “Eugene Debs Speaks to a Large Audience in Adams" 118
- The End of the Nineteenth Century 124
- Clarence Darrow Comes to Town 139
- Life and Work Through the 1920s 142
- Hard Times In North Berkshire 165
- The Great Depression in North Berkshire: Continuity and Change 170
- The Impact of the Great Depression 222
12 Sprague Organizing and the CIO, 1937–1944 226
13 Social Class and Union Membership In North Adams 255
14 A Pro-Labor Mayor, World War II, and the Post-War Industrial Workforce 260
15 The Windsor Mill Project: A Precursor of MoCA? 305
16 Government Contracts, Safety Issues,and Worker Organizing 308
17 Local Activists and the “Fairness” Doctrine 325
18 The 1970 Strike Against Sprague 332
19 From Colorado to the Berkshires:A Union President’s Education 376
20 A Sweatshop, a Bankruptcy, and Civil Disobedience 378
21 Norm Estes: Labor Leader with Long Ties to the Area 414
22 Sprague Shuts the Door 418
23 Building Strong Unions at North Adams Regional Hospital 447
24 The Region Gains a Museum and Loses a Hospital 458
25 Terry Louison: Biography of a Community Action Pioneer 500
26 “The Next New Thing” 506
27 Back to the Beginning: The Hoosic River Revival 515
28 “[L]ift Me Up to the Light of Change” 521
29 Generations Past, Present, and Future 554
Acknowledgements 565
Bibliography 569
Index 589