Cruel Years American Voices at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century

“Hearing the words of these people is a requirement for a truly democratic society.” —from the Preface by Howard Zinn

What was life like for a working person one hundred years ago? The Cruel Years offers readers a poignant and candid glimpse of the turmoil, oppression, and injustice of life in the early 1900s told by twenty-two working women and men who, through their short narratives, reveal the resiliency of their lives in the face of unimaginable horrors.

Written in the actual words of these working people, the narratives take us back one hundred years with vivid accounts of the struggle to survive among the poor and powerless: a young woman fights for better working conditions, a native American tries to preserve his identity against incredible odds, a coal miner warns of lethal dangers, a sweatshop girl tries to enjoy life, a hungarian immigrant in the South rages at his economic and cultural enslavement.

“Katz and Lehman have not only assembled a powerful teaching tool for the study of the turn of the last century, but they have also reminded us just how easy it is to erase stories of the oppressed and exploited.” —Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams and Yo Mamas Disfunktional!

William Loren Katz is an award-winning author and historian. He is the author of over forty titles, including the internationally acclaimed The Black West. Laurie R. Lehman, associate professor of education at Long Island University, has written extensively on culture and disability in U.S. education. They live in New York City.

What was life like for a working person one hundred years ago? The Cruel Years offers readers a poignant and candid glimpse of the turmoil, oppression, and injustice of life in the early 1900s told by twenty-two working women and men who, through their short narratives, reveal the resiliency of their lives in the face of unimaginable horrors. Written in the actual words of these working people, the narratives take us back one hundred years with vivid accounts of the struggle to survive among the poor and powerless: a young woman fights for better working conditions, a native American tries to preserve his identity against incredible odds, a coal miner warns of lethal dangers, a sweatshop girl tries to enjoy life, a Hungarian immigrant in the South rages at his economic and cultural enslavement.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 272-274).

The Cruel Years provides readers with a vivid picture of what life was like a hundred years ago, not for the rich and famous but for ordinary working Americans. The story is told in the words of twenty-two fascinating people who lived by laboring long hours at farms and factories and mines. A preface by Howard Zinn and an introduction by William Loren Katz provide an easy-to-follow historical map that places these hard-hitting, first-person narratives in the context of their troubled times and within the larger picture of U.S. growth and development.

Here are the no-nonsense words of a young immigrant trying to survive as a sweatshop operator in New York City, a hard working farmer's wife who has writing ambitions; a black southern sharecropper seeking fulfillment under a new system of slavery; a young Puerto Rican passing the Statue of Liberty and ready for new challenges; a Chinese immigrant, a Mexican immigrant, and a Japanese immigrant struggling to rise from lower rungs on the social and economic ladder; an Irish girl of sixteen deciding to become a political agitator; a black southern woman trying to fend off the hurts of Jim Crow; a coal miner telling of the lethal dangers of his work; and a black cowhand rejoicing in the thrill of the cattle trails.

William Loren Katz is an award-winning author and historian. He is the author of more than forty titles, including the internationally acclaimed The Black West. Laurie R. Lehman, associate professor of education at Long Island University, has written extensively on culture and disability in U.S. education. They live in New York City.