Plain Folk: The Life Stories of Undistinguished Americans

Plain Folk: The Life Stories of Undistinguished Americans
ISBN-10
0252009061
ISBN-13
9780252009068
Category
Biography & Autobiography
Pages
198
Language
English
Published
1982
Publisher
University of Illinois Press
Authors
William M. Tuttle, David M. Katzman

Description

Plain Folk depicts both the ordinary occupations and ethnic and racial diversity of America at the turn of the century. Katzman and Tuttle have drawn upon 75 brief autobiographies or "lifelets" of working-class Americans published between 1902 and 1906 in The Independent magazine. Among the seventeen life stories included here are those of a Lithuanian stockyards worker in Chicago, a Polish sweatshop girl and a Chinese merchant in New York City, a black peon in rural Georgia, and a Swedish farmer in Minnesota. Together they provide an unmediated and seldom-seen view of American life during this period.

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