Race and Labor in Western Copper

Know about the book -

Race and Labor in Western Copper is written by Philip J. Mellinger and published by University of Arizona Press. It's available with International Standard Book Number or ISBN identification 0816514771 (ISBN 10) and 9780816514779 (ISBN 13).

This is the story of immigrant copper workers and their attempts to organize at the turn of the century in Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and El Paso, Texas. These Mexican and European laborers of widely varying backgrounds and languages had little social, economic, or political power. Yet they achieved some surprising successes in their struggles - all in the face of a racist society and the unbridled power of the mine owners. Mellinger discusses towns, mines, camps, companies, and labor unions, but this book is largely about people. In order to reconstruct the lives of those in mining communities, Mellinger has used little-known union and company records, personal interviews with old-time workers and their families, and a variety of regional sources that together have enabled him to reveal a complex and significant pattern of social, economic, and political change in the American West.