Writing the Wrongs
Subtitle: Eva Valesh and the Rise of Labor Journalism
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Published: April 2002
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 272
ISBN-13: 9780801434617
Subjects: Biography: general; Press & journalism; Social history; Work & labour; Valesh, Eva McDonald,; Journalists; Biography / Autobiography; Biography & Autobiography; United States - General; Biography/Autobiography; USA; Labor & Industrial Relations - General; Editors, Journalists, Publishers; Women; 1866-1956; Biography; Labor journalism; United States
First sentence: Whenever she told her life story, Eva McDonald Valesh began with the event that turned her into a public figure, a now-obscure labor struggle, "the first women's strike in Minneapolis."
Description: "Eva McDonald Valesh was one of the Progressive Era's foremost labor publicists. Challenging the narrow confines placed on women, Valesh became a successful investigative journalist, organizer, and public speaker for labor reform.".

"Valesh was a compatriot of the labor leaders of her day and the "right-hand man" of Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor. Events she covered during her colorful, unconventional reporting career included the Populist revolt, the Cuban crisis of the 1890s, and the 1910 Shirtwaistmakers' uprising. She was described as bright, even "comet-like," by her admirers, but her enemies saw her as "a pest" who took "all the benefit that her sex controls when in argument with a man."".

"Elizabeth Faue examines the pivotal events that transformed this outspoken daughter of a working-class Scots-Irish family into a national political figure, interweaving the study of one woman's fascinating life with insightful analysis of the changing character of American labor reform during the period from 1880 to 1920.

In her journey through the worlds of labor, journalism, and politics, Faue reveals the underside of social reform and how front-line workers in labor's political culture - reporters, investigators, and lecturers - provoked and informed American society by writing about social wrongs. Compelling, insightful, and at times humorous, Writing the Wrongs is a window on the Progressive Era, on social history and the new journalism, and on women's lives and the meaning of class and gender."--BOOK JACKET.