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Looking Backward: An Exhibit of Edward Bellamy's Looking BackwardMain MenuLooking Backward by Edward BellamyOverview of this ProjectOutlining the Project's ScopeBoston 1887The Stagecoach AnalogyBoston 1887The Solution to the Labor IssueThe Knights of LaborUnited in BostonBellamy's BostonThe Utopic Boston of the Year 2000Utopic BostonUtopic CharacteristicsThe Capitalist America of TodayFinal Thoughts on Looking BackwardSourcesLooking Back: The ProcessEvan Ratermanne97ecf582f14fa0f3b0bf648c3d332c456e68ce4
12017-04-30T10:06:41-07:00Boston 18876The Solution to the Labor Issueplain2017-05-01T01:51:09-07:00Tensions were high in Boston as conditions and wages for workers reached an abysmal state. Men, women, and even children worked excruciating hours to be compensated poorly, successfully oppressing the individual into a poor state of life and social standing. To fight this, workers began to organize into unions, conducting strikes and protests in order to proposition for the conditions and wages they thought were fair.
Julian West, the main character of Bellamy's novel, experiences the effects of the Labor Issue in the construction of house, "The cause of a delay calculated to be particularly exasperating to an ardent lover was a series of strikes, that is to say, concerted refusals to work on the part of brick-layers, masons, carpenters, painters, plumbers, and other trades concerned in house building." (Bellamy 9)
This is a turning point, not only for Boston, but for America in general. These early unions would go on to shape labor in America for years to come. An 8-hour workday with weekends (or Sunday) off became a staple demand for these unions, one that would eventually be granted and would go on to influence the accepted workday of Americans for generations.
