Remembering Lattimer: Labor, Migration, and Race in Pennsylvania Anthracite Country (Working Class in American History)

On September 10, 1897, a group of 400 striking coal miners--workers of Polish, Slovak, and Lithuanian descent or origin--marched on Lattimer, Pennsylvania. There, law enforcement officers fired without warning into the protesters, killing nineteen miners and wounding thirty-eight others. The bloody day quickly faded into history. Paul A. Shackel confronts the legacies and lessons of the Lattimer event. Beginning with a dramatic retelling of the incident, Shackel traces how the violence, and the acquittal of the deputies who perpetrated it, spurred membership in the United Mine Workers. By blending archival and archaeological research with interviews, he weighs how the people living in the region remember--and forget--what happened. Now in positions of power, the descendants of the slain miners have themselves become rabidly anti-labor and anti-immigrant as Dominicans and other Latinos change the community. Shackel shows how the social, economic, and political circumstances surrounding historic Lattimer connect in profound ways to the riven communities of today. Compelling and timely, Remembering Lattimer restores an American tragedy to our public memory.

Business & Money

Shackel, Paul A.

Economics

University of Illinois Press

The Ruined Anthracite: Historical Trauma in Coal-Mining Communities (Working Class in American History)

Once a busy if impoverished center for the anthracite coal industry, northeastern Pennsylvania exists today as a region suffering inexorable decline--racked by economic hardship and rampant opioid abuse, abandoned by young people, and steeped in xenophobic fear. Paul A. Shackel merges analysis with oral history to document the devastating effects of a lifetime of structural violence on the people who have stayed behind. Heroic stories of workers facing the dangers of underground mining stand beside accounts of people living their lives in a toxic environment and battling deprivation and starvation by foraging, bartering, and relying on the good will of neighbors. As Shackel reveals the effects of these long-term traumas, he sheds light on people's poor health and lack of well-being. The result is a valuable on-the-ground perspective that expands our understanding of the social fracturing, economic decay, and anger afflicting many communities across the United States. Insightful and dramatic, The Ruined Anthracite combines archaeology, documentary research, and oral history to render the ongoing human cost of environmental devastation and unchecked capitalism.

Once a busy if impoverished center for the anthracite coal industry, northeastern Pennsylvania exists today as a region suffering inexorable decline--racked by economic hardship and rampant opioid abuse, abandoned by young people, and steeped in xenophobic fear. Paul A. Shackel merges analysis with oral history to document the devastating effects of a lifetime of structural violence on the people who have stayed behind. Heroic stories of workers facing the dangers of underground mining stand beside accounts of people living their lives in a toxic environment and battling deprivation and starvation by foraging, bartering, and relying on the good will of neighbors. As Shackel reveals the effects of these long-term traumas, he sheds light on people’s poor health and lack of well-being. The result is a valuable on-the-ground perspective that expands our understanding of the social fracturing, economic decay, and anger afflicting many communities across the United States. 
Insightful and dramatic, The Ruined Anthracite combines archaeology, documentary research, and oral history to render the ongoing human cost of environmental devastation and unchecked capitalism.

Harpers Ferry was one of America's earliest and most significant industrial communities - serving as an excellent example of the changing patterns of human relations that led to dramatic progress in work life and in domestic relations in modern times. In this well-illustrated book, Paul A. Shackel investigates the historical archaeology of Harpers Ferry, revealing the culture change and influence of new technology on workers and their families. He focuses on the contributions of laborers, craftsmen, and other subordinate groups to industrial progress, and examines ethnic and interracial development in an economy that was transformed from craft-based to industrial.

Culture Change and the New Technology: An Archaeology of the Early American Industrial Era (Contributions to Global Historical Archaeology)

History

Americas

Springer

Archaeology and Created Memory: Public History in a National Park (Contributions To Global Historical Archaeology)

Archaeology can either bolster memory and tradition, or contradict the status quo and provide an alternative view of the past. An archaeology of Harpers Ferry's wartime and Victorian eras confronts time-honored historical interpretations of the past (created and perpetuated by such interest groups as historians and the National Park Service) and in so doing allows us to be more inclusive of the town's forgotten histories and provides alternative voices to a past.

Reference

Archaeology and Created Memory

Kluwer Academic Pulishers

New Philadelphia, Illinois, was founded in 1836 by Frank McWorter, a Kentucky slave who purchased his own freedom and then acquired land on the prairie for establishing a newand integratedcommunity. McWorter sold property to other freed slaves and to whites, and used the proceeds to buy his family out of slavery. The town population reached 160, but declined when the railroad bypassed it. By 1940 New Philadelphia had virtually disappeared from the landscape. In this book, Paul A. Shackel resurrects McWorter’s great achievement of self-determinism, independence, and the will to exist. Shackel describes a cooperative effort by two universities, the state museum, the New Philadelphia Association, and numerous descendents to explore the history and archaeology of this unusual multi-racial community.

New Philadelphia: An Archæology of Race in the Heartland

University of California Press

The Making of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park: A Devil, Two Rivers, and a Dream (American Association for State and Local History)

Harpers Ferry National Historical Park is most widely known today for the attempted slave revolt led by John Brown in 1859, the nucleus for the interpretation of the current national park. Here, Moyer and Shackel tell the behind-the-scenes story of how this event was chosen and preserved for commemoration, providing lessons for federal, state, local and non-profit organizations who continually struggle over the dilemma about which past to present to the public. Professional and non-professional audiences alike will benefit from their important insights into how federal agencies interpret the past, and in turn shape public memory.

Moyer, Teresa S.

Travel

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

"Shackel provides a compelling account of how an archaeology of working-class life can correct and enrich historical knowledge and improve public understanding of the American industrial experience."--Dean J. Saitta, University of Denver
"A thorough, well-written overview of the issues confronting an archaeology of labor and the contributions historical archaeologists have made in addressing those issues. I would strongly recommend this book for anyone teaching historical archaeology or labor history at the university level."--Stephen A. Mrozowski, University of Massachusetts
The winners write history. Thus, it is no surprise that the story of American industrialization is dominated by tales of unbridled technical and social progress. What happens, though, when we take a closer look at the archaeological record? That is the focus of Paul Shackel's new book, which examines labor and working-class life in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century industrial America.
Shackel offers an overview of a number of ongoing archaeology projects that are focused on reconstructing the capital-labor relations of the past. He demonstrates that worker unrest has been a constant feature of industrialization, as the fight for fair wages and decent working conditions has been a continual one. He shows how workers resisted conditions through sabotage and how new immigrants dealt with daily life in company housing; he even reveals important information about conditions in strike camps.

The Archaeology of American Labor and Working-Class Life (American Experience in Archaeological Pespective)

University Press of Florida

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Shackel, Paul A.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Shackel, Paul A.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Shackel, Paul A.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Remembering Lattimer: Labor, Migration, and Race in Pennsylvania Anthracite Country (Working Class in American History)

The Ruined Anthracite: Historical Trauma in Coal-Mining Communities (Working Class in American History)

Remembering Lattimer: Labor, Migration, and Race in Pennsylvania Anthracite Country (Working Class in American History)

The Ruined Anthracite: Historical Trauma in Coal-Mining Communities (Working Class in American History)

Culture Change and the New Technology: An Archaeology of the Early American Industrial Era (Contributions to Global Historical Archaeology)

Archaeology and Created Memory: Public History in a National Park (Contributions To Global Historical Archaeology)

Archaeology and Created Memory

New Philadelphia: An Archæology of Race in the Heartland

The Making of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park: A Devil, Two Rivers, and a Dream (American Association for State and Local History)

The Archaeology of American Labor and Working-Class Life (American Experience in Archaeological Pespective)