Working in the Magic City
Moral Economy in Early Twentieth-Century Miami
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
About This Book
In the early twentieth century, Miami cultivated an image of itself as a destination for leisure and sunshine free from labor strife. Thomas A. Castillo unpacks this idea of class harmony and the language that articulated its presence by delving into the conflicts, repression, and progressive grassroots politics of the time. Castillo pays particular attention to how class and race relations reflected and reinforced the nature of power in Miami. Class harmony argued against the existence of labor conflict, but in reality obscured how workers struggled within the city's service-oriented seasonal economy. Castillo shows how and why such an ideal thrived in Miami's atmosphere of growth and boosterism and amidst the political economy of tourism. His analysis also presents class harmony as a theoretical framework that broadens our definitions of class conflict and class consciousness.
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Table of contents
- Cover Page
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: Working-Class Community
- 1. Class and Race in the Interwar Years
- 2. Driving and Chauffeuring in Miami
- 3. Fighting the Open Shop
- 4. Winter Playground Blues: Unemployment, Home Labor, and the Hobo Express
- 5. Appeals to Harmony: Perrine Palmer and Transcending Scarcity
- 6. Fighting for Social Harmony: Relief, New Deals, and the Unemployed
- 7. Labor Marches: Class Struggle and the Marginalization of Class
- Epilogue
- Appendix: Miami Occupation Distribution
- Notes
- Index
- Back Cover