“A Worker’s History” Book Discussion | SF

Submitted by the Event Organizer

Labor historian Harvey Schwartz has compiled oral histories of nine workers who helped build the celebrated bridge. Their powerful recollections chronicle the technical details of construction, the grueling physical conditions they endured, the small pleasures they enjoyed, and the gruesome accidents some workers suffered. The result is an evocation of working-class life and culture in a bygone era.

“Harvey Schwartz follows the example of Studs Terkel by allowing workers to speak for themselves. Building the Golden Gate Bridge comes at a time when we Americans are asking ourselves, are we finished as a working nation-if and when work is defined as highly skilled, demanding, dangerous, intricate performance by ordinary workers operating at the top of their game? This book, the voices of these workers, and the Golden Gate Bridge itself gives us the confidence to assert that labor in America is far from finished. It has got a long way to go-and the Golden Gate Bridge has set the standards for that journey.” -Kevin Starr, California State Librarian Emeritus

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