Title: Company towns :
Authors: White, Neil,
Date: 2012
Publisher: University of Toronto Press,
Physical description: xiv, 242 p. : ill., maps ; 24 cm.
Language: English
LC classification: F
Abstract: "Company towns are often portrayed as powerless communities, fundamentally dependent on the outside influence of global capital. Neil White challenges this interpretation by exploring how these communities were altered at the local level through human agency, missteps, and chance. Far from being homogeneous, these company towns are shown to be unique communities with equally unique histories. Company Towns provides a multi-layered, international comparison between the development of two settlements--the mining community of Mount Isa, Queensland, Australia, and the mill town of Corner Brook, Newfoundland, Canada. White pinpoints crucial differences between the towns' experiences by contrasting each region's histories from various perspectives--business, urban, labour, civic, and socio-cultural. Company Towns also makes use of a sizable collection of previously neglected oral history sources and town records, providing an illuminating portrait of divergence that defies efforts to impose structure on the company town phenomenon."--Publisher's website.
Contents: Introduction -- The old order changeth: industrial development at Corner Brook -- Worth dominating? industrial development at Mount Isa -- Praying for a conflagration: planned and fringe towns -- Collaborators, communists and casanovas? labour at Corner Brook and Mount Isa -- If I had to get a factory job I'd be fired: civic life and resident-company negotiation -- Personal relationships and private worlds? structures of feeling in company towns -- Conclusion.
Subject headings (LCSH): Case studies.; Community life--Case studies; Company towns--Case studies.; Corner Brook (N.L.)--Economic conditions.; Corner Brook (N.L.)--History.; Corner Brook (N.L.)--Social conditions.; Corporations--Social aspects--Case studies.; Mount Isa (Qld.)--Economic conditions.; Mount Isa (Qld.)--History.; Mount Isa (Qld.)--Social conditions.; Resource-based communities--Case studies.