Hands: Physical Labor, Class, and Cultural Work - Paperback

by Janet Zandy (Author)

What are two hands worth?
In linking forms of cultural expression to labor, occupational injuries, and deaths, Hands: Physical Labor, Class, and Cultural Work centers what is usually decentered--the complex culture of working-class people. Janet Zandy begins by examining the literal loss of lives to unsafe jobs and occupational hazards. She asks critical and timely questions about worker representation--who speaks for employees when the mills, mines, factories, and even white-collar cubicles shut down? She presents the voices of working-class writers and artists, and discusses their contribution to knowledge and culture.
This innovative study reveals the flesh and bone beneath the abstractions of labor, class, and culture. It is an essential contribution to the emerging field of working-class studies, offering a hybrid model for bridging communities and non-academic workers to scholars and institutions of knowledge.

Author Biography

Janet Zandy is a professor of language and literature at the Rochester Institute of Technology. She is the author of Calling Home: Working-Class Women's Writing, Liberating Memory: Our Work and Our Working-Class Consciousness, and What We Hold in Common: An Introduction to Working-Class Studies.