A Workforce Divided

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.