Laurie, Bruce 1943-

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Laurie, Bruce 1943-

PERSONAL:

Born March 1, 1943, in Elizabeth, NJ; son of Philip and Lillian Laurie; married Leslie Tarr (a health planner), June 1, 1969; children: one. Education: Rutgers University, B.A. (with honors), 1965; University of Pittsburgh, M.A., Ph.D., 1971.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of History and Labor Studies, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003. E-mail—laurie@history.umass.edu

CAREER:

University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, research associate of Philadelphia Social History Project, 1977-78; associated with department of history and labor studies at University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Visiting senior lecturer at Centre for the Study of Social History, University of Warwick, 1983-84.

MEMBER:

Phi Beta Kappa.

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with Milton Cantor) Class, Sex, and the Woman Worker, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1977.

Working People of Philadelphia, 1800-1850, Temple University Press (Philadelphia, PA), 1980.

Artisans into Workers: Labor in Nineteenth-Century America, Hill and Wang (New York, NY), 1989.

(Editor, with Eric Arnesen and Julie Greene) Labor Histories: Class, Politics, and the Working Class Experience, University of Illinois (Urbana, IL), 1998.

Beyond Garrison: Antislavery and Social Reform, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2005.

The Rise of Conservatism in America, 1945-2000: A Brief History with Documents, Bedford/St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2008.

SIDELIGHTS:

Historian Bruce Laurie has written extensively about labor history in the United States. In Artisans into Workers: Labor in Nineteenth-Century America he explores the ways in which industrialization in the 1800s transformed skilled artisans into wage earners with little, if any, control over the terms and conditions of their work. Reviewing the book in Labor Studies Journal, John L. Revitte observed that Laurie "deftly portrays the factories, machines, and shift in ownership to distant corporations shattering customs and artisans' dreams of escaping wage-worker status." Laurie discusses the roles of unions, immigration, and slave and free black labor, and provides what Revitte considered "both telling summary and human accounts about the women who labored in expanding workshops, tenements, and mills in clothing, shoe and other industries." Artisans into Workers, Revitte concluded, serves as an outstanding account of industry changes and labor struggles in nineteenth-century America.

Beyond Garrison: Antislavery and Social Reform examines the organization and influence of the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts. As the title of his book indicates, Laurie challenges the view that abolitionist leader William Lloyd Garrison, who insisted that his movement remain unaffiliated with any political party, advocated an uncompromising moral position that was eventually co-opted by more self-interested and pragmatic party politicians. In Laurie's view, these political groups were able to achieve considerable gains that eluded Garrison's more idealistic camp. In a review for the Journal of Southern History, Robert D. Sayre wrote that Beyond Garrison "makes a major contribution to rehabilitating the reputation of political abolitionists who sought to oppose slavery's extension and improve the conditions of African Americans through the Liberty, Free Soil, Know-Nothing, and Republican Parties." Noting Laurie's "valuable insights into the social and economic climates of antebellum Massachusetts, Sayre observed that Beyond Garrison "deserves a wide readership."

Frederick J. Blue, in a review posted on the H-Shear Web site, commented that Laurie's focus on Massachusetts "adds a significant element [to analysis of the antislavery movement]—the importance of economic and social issues, and shows how third-party leaders formed coalitions with workers and African Americans and labored effectively to achieve a wide spectrum of reforms." Though Blue was not entirely convinced by Laurie's argument that racism was not rooted in the white working class but was inculcated by Democratic party operatives, the critic felt that "Laurie is on firmer ground in arguing that ‘middling’ northerners developed their affinity for antislavery through far more local concerns, such as those raised around personal liberty in the wake of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850."

Laurie also coedited Labor Histories: Class, Politics, and the Working Class Experience, a book that Industrial and Labor Relations Review contributor Walter T. Howard considered "an engaging and valuable collection of essays" that suggests that "the future of American labor history looks bright and exciting."

Bruce Laurie once told CA: "I am motivated by my love for history and hope for the future."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, October 1, 2006, Stephen Kantrowitz, review of Beyond Garrison: Anti-slavery and Social Reform, p. 1176.

American Journal of Sociology, November 1, 2006, Joseph Gerteis, review of Beyond Garrison, p. 926.

American Quarterly, March 1, 1990, Jonathan Prude, review of Artisans into Workers: Labor in Nineteenth-Century America, p. 136.

Business History Review, spring, 1999, Melvyn Dubosfky, review of Labor Histories: Class, Politics, and the Working Class Experience.

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, September 1, 2006, R. Detweiler, review of Beyond Garrison, p. 182.

Contemporary Sociology, March 1, 2006, review of Beyond Garrison, p. 196.

Industrial and Labor Relations Review, April 1, 1983, Edward Pessen, review of Working People of Philadelphia, 1800-1850, p. 497; July 1, 2000, Walter T. Howard, review of Labor Histories, p. 720.

Journal of American History, September 1, 1981, review of Working People of Philadelphia, 1800-1850, p. 373; March 1, 2000, Walter Licht, review of Labor Histories, p. 1808; September 1, 2006, Michael D. Pierson, review of Beyond Garrison, p. 526.

Journal of Economic History, June 1, 1999, Gillian Hamilton, review of Labor Histories, p. 549.

Journal of Social History, summer, 2007, Patrick Real, review of Beyond Garrison.

Journal of Southern History, February 1, 2007, Robert D. Sayre, review of Beyond Garrison, p. 173.

Journal of the Early Republic, fall, 2006, Rachel Hope Cleves, review of Beyond Garrison.

Labor History, fall, 1993, Nancy F. Gabin, review of Artisans into Workers; May 1, 2000, Robert H. Zieger, review of Labor Histories, p. 215.

Labor Studies Journal, spring, 1992, John L. Revitte, review of Artisans into Workers, p. 88.

Labour/Le Travail, spring, 1992, review of Artisans into Workers.

Law and History Review, fall, 2007, Thomas J. Davis, review of Beyond Garrison.

Law and Politics Book Review, January, 2006, Mark Tushnet, review of Beyond Garrison, p. 56.

New England Quarterly, December 1, 2006, David Quigley, review of Beyond Garrison, p. 661.

New Leader, July 14, 1980, Ernest H. Schell, review of Working People of Philadelphia, 1800-1850, p. 17.

Social History, May, 2000, Mary H. Blewett, review of Labor Histories, p. 252.