The 1912 Bread and Roses Strike Highlighted in New Local Book

MT. PLEASANT, S.C. - Aug. 12, 2013 - PRLog -- The newest addition to Arcadia Publishing’s popular Images of America series is Lawrence and the 1912 Bread and Roses Strike from local authors Dr. Robert Forrant and Susan Grabski. The book boasts more than 200 vintage images of the working conditions in New England and the historic strike.

Incorporated in 1847 on the banks of the Merrimack River, Lawrence, Massachusetts, was the final and most ambitious of New England’s planned textile-manufacturing cities developed by the Boston-area entrepreneurs who helped launch the American Industrial Revolution. With a dam and canal system to generate power, by 1912 Lawrence led the world in the production of worsted wool cloth. The Pacific Cotton Mills alone had sales of nearly $10 million and had mechanical equipment capable of producing 800 miles of finished textile fabrics every working day.

However, industrial growth was accompanied by worsening health, housing and working conditions for most of the city’s workers. These were the root causes that led to the long, sometimes violent struggle between people of diverse ethnic groups and languages and the city’s mill owners and overseers. The 1912 strike—known today as the Bread and Roses Strike—became a landmark moment in history.

A few of the topics discussed in Lawrence and the 1912 Bread and Roses Strike:
•   A City is Born
•   A Place to Live and Work
•   The 1912 Strike
•   Children Are Sent Away
•   Congressional Hearings Begin
•   In Defense of Caruso, Ettor and Giovannitti

Available at area bookstores, independent retailers, and online retailers, or through Arcadia Publishing at (888)-313-2665 or online.  

Arcadia Publishing is the leading publisher of local and regional history in the United States.  Our mission is to make history accessible and meaningful through the publication of books on the heritage of America’s people and places.  Have we done a book on your town?  Visit www.arcadiapublishing.com.