A Living Wage: American Workers and the Making of Consumer Society

239 Pages·1997·6.25 MB·English

by  Lawrence B. Glickman

LAWRENCE B.

GLICKMAN
A Living Wage
A Living Wage

AMERICAN WORKERS AND THE

MAKING OF CONSUMER SOCIETY

Lawrence B. Glickman

Cornell University Press

Ithaca & London
Copyright e 1997 by Cornell University

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First published 1997 by Cornell University Press

First printing. Cornell Paperbacks. 1999

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the United States of America

Ubrary of Congress QltalDglng·/n·PubUcatton Data

GUcIanan. Lawrence B. . 1963-

A Uvtng _ge: American workers and the making of consumer

society I Lawrence B. GUckman.

p. cm.

Includes Index.

ISBN 0·8014·3357·6 (cloth: a1k. paperl

ISBN 0-8014-8614-9 (pbk:

I.

a1k. paper)

Wages-United States-History.

United States-History.

2. Cost and standard of Uvtng­

3. Working Class-United States-History.

4. Consumptlon (Economlcsl-5ociaJ aspects-United States-History.

HD6983.G475

331.2·97�c21

1997

Cloth printing ill 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
Paperback printing ill 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

97-19264
For my parents, Sandra and Ronald Glickman
Contents

Part I

lUustrattons Ix
Preface xi
Introduction: Rethinking Wage Labor 1
ProID Wage Slavery to the
LiftDgWage 9

Part D

PartlD

Chapter 1. That Curse of Modem Civilization 17
Chapter 2. Idle Men and Fallen Women 35
The Social BeonoID7 55
Chapter 3. Defining the Living Wage 61
Chapter 4. Inventing the American Standard of Living 78
Workers of the World. eo_aIDe 93
Chapter 5. Merchants of Time 99
Chapter 6. Producers as Consumers 1 08

vU
vIII

Part IV

Contents

The Li.ua,Wage iD the
Twentieth Century

129

Chapter 7. Subsistence or Consumption? 133
Chapter 8. The Living Wage Incorporated 147
Coda: Interpreting the Living Wage and Consumption 157
Abbrevtattons Used tn the Notes 163
Notes 165
Index 215
nlustrations

Figure 1. "Don't Be a Wage Slave."lntemational Socialist Review ( 1 91 1 )
28

Figure 2. Joseph Keppler. "The Overcrowded Raft." Puck (191 3)

4 1

Figures 3 -7. Joseph Manasian. Photo-Engravers' Union No. 1. "This Is
the Way It Happens." Union Label Advocate ( 1 920) 115. 1 1 7. 1 18. 1 20.
1 22

Figure 8. J. N. Darling. 'The Living Wage Puzzle." Collier's (1922)
145

ix