Nancy L. Green offers a critical and lively look at New York’s Seventh Avenue and the Parisian Sentier in this first comparative study of the two historical centers of the women’s garment industry. Torn between mass production and "art;" this industry is one of the few manufactauring sectors left in the service-centered cities of today. Ready-to-Wear and Ready-to-Work tells the story of urban growth; the politics of labor; and the relationships among the many immigrant groups who have come to work the sewing machines over the last century.Green focuses on issues of fashion and fabrication as they involve both the production and consumption of clothing. Traditionally; much of the urban garment industry has been organized around small workshops and flexible homework; and Green emphasizes the effect this labor organization had on the men and mostly women who have sewn the garments. Whether considering the immigrant Jews; Italians; Puerto Ricans; Dominicans; and Chinese in New York or the Chinese-Cambodians; Turks; Armenians; and Russian; Polish; and Tunisian Jews in Paris; she outlines similarities of social experience in the shops and the unions; while allowing the voices of the workers; in all their diversity to be heard.A provocative examination of gender and ethnicity; historical conflict and consensus; and notions of class and cultural difference; Ready-to-Wear and Ready-to-Work breaks new ground in the methodology of comparative history.
#2214272 in Books Ingramcontent 2017-06-15 2017-06-15Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.00 x .76 x 6.00l; #File Name: 0820351024338 pagesPractical Strangers The Courtship Correspondence of Nathaniel Dawson and Elodie Todd Sister of Mary Todd Lincoln New Perspectives on the Civil War
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Liked this one a lot :-)By Yonah reviewerA wonderful mix of romantic memoir and history pulled from the saved letters of this couple who courted by way of letters during the war of the North and South. She was the sister of the wife of Abraham Lincoln and he was a twice-widowed man who was going off to fight for the South. He stopped by and asked her to marry him and she accepted; and then off he went. They got better acquainted through writing while waiting for the war to be over. I love the old fashioned way they spoke and wrote back then; it made reading their letters to one another very enjoyable for me. The letters were edited for the book to mostly cover just the courtship; but there is also a link to a website where the letters are posted in full for those interested in seeing them.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Anyone who is interested in family history or is a Civil War buff will enjoy this bookBy J.KPractical Strangers looks at the letter courtship of Elodie Todd and Nathaniel Dawson. The letters were sent between 1861-1862 while they were separated by the Civil War. Elodie; a younger half sibling of Mary Todd Lincoln; despaired of ever marrying; but soon caught the eye of twice widowed Dawson. Their letters are effusive and detailed. The authors provided thorough details of the backgrounds of the two before the reader is introduced to the letters. Anyone who is interested in family history or is a Civil War buff will enjoy this book.
