Shackel and Archaeologies of Labor
In 2009, Paul Shackel published The Archaeology of American Labor and Working-Class Life. The text sets up a series of brief case studies to demonstrate the exploitation of the working class in America. It does what it says on the tin. However, the book in its slim nature refrains from attempting the depth that these stories are due. While Shackel manages to transcribe with brevity world-systems theory (McGuire 2002: 136) and industrial surveillance architecture (Foucault 1979), he outlines memorialization projects of industrial landscapes, evidence of race and gender experience in workers’ environs, and the power that labor organizers deployed against their managers and higher ups. I appreciate the reset that Shackel presents here with attention to the sacrifices and material circumstances of workers over lauding American innovation. It is not a text that venerates workers but observes in low relief the conditions in which they lived and survived.
This is not a book that is meant to bore into the specifics unfortunately. It doesn’t have the capacity to do this work so explicitly. It’s a tool to observe from a distance the broad picture of certain sites, like Lowell, MA and Harper’s Ferry, WV, and their corresponding realms of production—textiles and armory/flour. If one seeks a primer on what defined industry and exploitation of black enslaved persons and Chinese immigrants, then this might be a place to begin. This text by no means will satisfy one’s need to understand the intricacies and nuances of resistance on the part of those who rise up to disrupt early capitalist and neoliberal America. For that desire, one must dig deeper, if you’ll allow me, read the reports, articles, and books of those who conducted archaeology at sites that are mentioned throughout Shackel’s text. If you are interested in understanding better the Haymarket Strike or the Ludlow Strike and violence against those in the encampment, you would be best suited to search for books pertaining to these events themselves.
