Living and Dying on the Factory Floor

From the Outside In and the Inside Out

Biography & Memoir, Political, Nonfiction, History, Americas, United States
Cover of the book Living and Dying on the Factory Floor by David Ranney, PM Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: David Ranney ISBN: 9781629636573
Publisher: PM Press Publication: January 1, 2019
Imprint: PM Press Language: English
Author: David Ranney
ISBN: 9781629636573
Publisher: PM Press
Publication: January 1, 2019
Imprint: PM Press
Language: English

David Ranney's vivid memoir describes his work experiences between 1976 and 1982 in the factories of southeast Chicago and northwest Indiana, one of the heaviest industrial concentrations in the world. The author takes the reader on a walk through the heart of Chicago's South Side, observing the noise, heavy traffic, the 24-hour restaurants and bars, the rich diversity of people on the streets at all hours of the day and night, and the smell of the highly polluted air. Factory life includes stints at a machine shop, a shortening factory, a railroad car factory, a structural steel shop, a box factory, a chemical plant, and a paper cup factory. Along the way there is a wildcat strike, an immigration raid, shop-floor actions protesting supervisor abuses, serious injuries, a failed effort to unionize, and a murder. Ranney's emphasis is on race and class relations, working conditions, environmental issues, and broader social issues in the 1970s that impacted the shop floor. Forty years later, the narrator returns to Chicago's South Side to reveal what happened to the communities, buildings, and the companies that had inhabited them. Living and Dying on the Factory Floor concludes with discussions on the nature of work; racism, race, and class; the use of immigration policy for social control; and our ability to create a just society.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

David Ranney's vivid memoir describes his work experiences between 1976 and 1982 in the factories of southeast Chicago and northwest Indiana, one of the heaviest industrial concentrations in the world. The author takes the reader on a walk through the heart of Chicago's South Side, observing the noise, heavy traffic, the 24-hour restaurants and bars, the rich diversity of people on the streets at all hours of the day and night, and the smell of the highly polluted air. Factory life includes stints at a machine shop, a shortening factory, a railroad car factory, a structural steel shop, a box factory, a chemical plant, and a paper cup factory. Along the way there is a wildcat strike, an immigration raid, shop-floor actions protesting supervisor abuses, serious injuries, a failed effort to unionize, and a murder. Ranney's emphasis is on race and class relations, working conditions, environmental issues, and broader social issues in the 1970s that impacted the shop floor. Forty years later, the narrator returns to Chicago's South Side to reveal what happened to the communities, buildings, and the companies that had inhabited them. Living and Dying on the Factory Floor concludes with discussions on the nature of work; racism, race, and class; the use of immigration policy for social control; and our ability to create a just society.

More books from PM Press

Cover of the book Generation V by David Ranney
Cover of the book Headhunters by David Ranney
Cover of the book Playing as if the World Mattered by David Ranney
Cover of the book The CNT in the Spanish Revolution by David Ranney
Cover of the book The Story of Crass by David Ranney
Cover of the book Don't Mourn, Balkanize! by David Ranney
Cover of the book Songs of Freedom by David Ranney
Cover of the book Cointelshow by David Ranney
Cover of the book The Glass Factory by David Ranney
Cover of the book Modern Politics by David Ranney
Cover of the book Anarchy and the Sex Question by David Ranney
Cover of the book Pictures Of A Gone City by David Ranney
Cover of the book The Struggle Within by David Ranney
Cover of the book Love and Struggle by David Ranney
Cover of the book Gypsy by David Ranney
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy