From Slavery to the Cooperative Commonwealth
Labor and Republican Liberty in the Nineteenth Century

This book reconstructs how a group of nineteenth-century labor reformers appropriated and radicalized the republican tradition.

Alex Gourevitch (Author)

9781107663657, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 8 December 2014

220 pages
22.8 x 15.1 x 1.5 cm, 0.35 kg

'Provides a careful examination of labor arguments, uncovering the complex ways advocates 'embraced and recast' republican ideology.' Daniel J. McInerney, The Journal of American History

This book reconstructs how a group of nineteenth-century labor reformers appropriated and radicalized the republican tradition. These 'labor republicans' derived their definition of freedom from a long tradition of political theory dating back to the classical republics. In this tradition, to be free is to be independent of anyone else's will - to be dependent is to be a slave. Borrowing these ideas, labor republicans argued that wage laborers were unfree because of their abject dependence on their employers. Workers in a cooperative, on the other hand, were considered free because they equally and collectively controlled their work. Although these labor republicans are relatively unknown, this book details their unique, contemporary, and valuable perspective on both American history and the organization of the economy.

Introduction: something of slavery still remains
1. The paradox of slavery and freedom
2. 'Independent laborers by voluntary contract': the laissez-faire republican turn
3. 'The sword of want': free labor against wage labor
4. Labor republicanism and the cooperative commonwealth
5. Solidarity and selfishness: the political theory of the dependent classes
Conclusion: the freedom yet to come.

Subject Areas: Political science & theory [JPA], Politics & government [JP]