Wobblies, pile butts, and other heroes
Subtitle: laborlore explorations
By: Archie Green.
Series: Folklore and society; Publications of the American Folklore Society. New series; Publications of the American Folklore Society.
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Published: 1993
Place of publication: Urbana
Language: eng
Number of pages: 523
Subjects: Occupations -- United States -- Folklore.; Folklore -- United States.
Description: In this culmination of his half-century of involvement with American workers and their traditions, Archie Green explores occupational expression - stories, songs, customs, beliefs, artifacts - on the job and in institutions such as trade unions. Combining ethnographic description with analysis drawn from folklore, history, literary criticism, art history, linguistics, and philosophy, Green presents ten case studies in which he reflects on single words as social texts ("Wobbly," "fink") and clustered words within anecdotes, tales, and ballads ("John Henry," Homestead's strike songs, job yarns about cuckoldry and sexual impotence, and pile-driving traditions, for example). Drawing on Green's own experience as a shipwright and carpenter, the book will appeal both to workers curious about their history and traditions and to academicians who study the workforce and labor process.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [459]-503) and index.