History 248 Reading Guide
Industrialization: Technological Developments and the Reorganization of Production
- Thomas Dublin, “Rural-Urban Migrants in Industrial New England: The Case of Lynn, Massachusetts, in the Mid-Nineteenth Century,” Journal of American History 73.3 (1986), 623-644. JSTOR
Further reading:
- Ira Berlin, Herbert G. Gutman, “Natives and Immigrants, Free Men and Slaves: Urban Workingmen in the Antebellum American South,” American Historical Review 88.5 (1983), 1175-1200. JSTOR
Questions:
- According to Dublin, in what ways was the migration to Lynn part of a larger a community phenomenon? How does he describe the evolution of the boot and shoe industry in Lynn and the economic circumstances nearby counties and countryside from which its migrants came?
- In what ways was the migration “fundamentally a family phenomenon”? According to Dublin, how did the migrants’ families of origin shape/influence their decisions to migrate to Lynn in the years between 1850 and 1880, and their decisions to stay in Lynn or return to their hometowns?
- How does Dublin explain the remarkable residential persistence of Lynn’s working class community?
- How did the residential stability of the community contribute to, rather than hinder, organized economic and political protest?
