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The demise of industrial paternalism: the case of southern textiles, 1880-1940

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dc.contributor.authorPope, Bingham Gravesen
dc.contributor.committeechairWardell, Mark L.en
dc.contributor.committeememberDudley, Charles J.en
dc.contributor.committeememberCalasanti, Tonien
dc.contributor.departmentSociologyen
dc.date.accessioned2014-03-14T21:40:09Zen
dc.date.adate2009-07-11en
dc.date.available2014-03-14T21:40:09Zen
dc.date.issued1993en
dc.date.rdate2009-07-11en
dc.date.sdate2009-07-11en
dc.description.abstractThis thesis is an historical social analysis of the Southern textile industry of 1880 to 1940, the industry which brought about the industrialization of the South. The initial class relationship institutionalized between the emerging industrial elite and the proleteriat was the socio-economic system of industrial paternalism, which disappeared from the Southern Piedmont in the 40s when mills began to sell villages. This thesis attempts to explain the demise of industrial paternalism in the case of the Southern textiles. Conventional treatments of paternalism regard its disappearance as either a product of the inevitable progression toward pluralistic industrialism or as a result of one or more historical factors. In this thesis, paternalism's demise is viewed as a result of a social process--the working out of the ever-dynamic "relations of power" between textile owners and workers. Four class-analysis theories are used to highlight different social and economic features of the historical case. Specifically, I research the relative impact of the alternative labor market, the consolidation movement, scientific management, social legislation, and worker organization. My results indicate that the introduction of scientific management negated the substance of paternalistic relations, but the form of paternalism, namely the mill village, continued to function as an effective means of union prevention. Not until the New Deal did mill village paternalism really become untenable, when the state intervened to set a textile minimum wage and maximum hours and to protect union organization. It is shown that, contrary to popular opinion, worker organization and the textile union had a significant impact upon the destiny of paternalism, both sustaining its life as a means of labor control, and propelling the developments that rendered it ultimately ineffective. The findings corroborate Karl Polanyi's contention that inclusion of the non-economic is vital.en
dc.description.degreeMaster of Scienceen
dc.format.extentvii, 142 leavesen
dc.format.mediumBTDen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.otheretd-07112009-040250en
dc.identifier.sourceurlhttp://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-07112009-040250/en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/43660en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherVirginia Techen
dc.relation.haspartLD5655.V855_1993.P674.pdfen
dc.relation.isformatofOCLC# 29746279en
dc.rightsIn Copyrighten
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/en
dc.subject.lccLD5655.V855 1993.P674en
dc.subject.lcshIndustrial relations -- Southern States -- Historyen
dc.subject.lcshManufactures -- Southern States -- Historyen
dc.subject.lcshTextile industry -- Southern States -- Historyen
dc.titleThe demise of industrial paternalism: the case of southern textiles, 1880-1940en
dc.typeThesisen
dc.type.dcmitypeTexten
thesis.degree.disciplineSociologyen
thesis.degree.grantorVirginia Polytechnic Institute and State Universityen
thesis.degree.levelmastersen
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Scienceen

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