Industrialization, Immigrants, and Americanizers; The View from Milwaukee, 1866-1921

Gerd Korman, Cornell University ILR School

Abstract

Link provided is to the Cornell University Library catalog record.

During the late nineteenth century, attempts were made in Milwaukee and elsewhere in the nation to improve relations between industrial employers and their immigrant workers. These attempts consisted largely of company-sponsored recreational and welfare activities marked by informality and paternalism. After 1900, however, came more systematic safety, health, and welfare programs by such companies as Illinois Steel, Allis-Chalmers, and International Harvester. Methods and materials for safety and health education were often designated to cope with the many languages and the alleged cultural and mental limitations of semiskilled and unskilled workers from Eastern and Southern Europe. In addition, labor militancy, industrial change, and the outbreak of World War I spurred the creation of English classes and intensive Americanization campaigns in industry, especially in the United States Steel Company and the Ford Motor Company. (Socioeconomic and occupational patterns and conditions among various Milwaukee ethnic groups during the decades of heaviest immigration are also documented.) The document includes a subject index, an extensive bibliography, and is available from the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison.