The great depression and American capitalism

The Banking Crisis of 1933

Shorter work hours was a vital issue during the formation of the labor movement in the 19th century and continued to be important until the end of the Great Depression. Some of the most dramatic and significant events in the history of labor (such as the strikes of 1886, the Haymarket disaster, the steel strike of 1919) and some of labor's most notable achievements (such as the ten hour day and the eight hour day) were parts of labor's century-long struggle for shorter hours. Recent writers have also noted that workers valued shorter hours because it was necessary for the expression of the nonpecuniary values, motives, and activities which the "new labor historians" have shown to be of such significance. But the history of shorter hours transcends the labor movement. Shorter hours was a political issue almost as long as it was a labor cause. It was part of reform politics from before the Civil War through Franklin Delano Roosevelt's second term. It was an issue for the idealistic, antebellum reformers. It had a prominent place in the Populists' Omaha platform and the Bull Moose platform, and appeared in both the Democratic and Re-

The end of shorter hours

Historians have recently tried to explain why the century-long work-reduction movement ended in the 1940s. A history of Kellogg's Six-Hour day program reveals that the loss of business and management support contributed to this demise. Mainstream corporations such as Kellogg's once thought that managed work reduction would save capitalism, and they developed a capitalist vision of freedom from work remarkably similar to recent socialist writings. But Kellogg's management reversed course and ultimately opposed the Six-Hour day. Instead they developed more conventional corporate views: that industrial progress is defined by more work for more people, that increasing the number of jobs is a primary economic goal (but not the responsibility of the individual firm), and that work can be perfected to become the most satisfying part of life.

The great depression and American capitalism

Citations

The Banking Crisis of 1933

The end of shorter hours

Kellogg's Six-Hour Day: A Capitalist Vision of Liberation through Managed Work Reduction

Draftings In Draftings In Getting to the Bottom of the Great Depression Getting to the Bottom of the Great Depression

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