Cheap Amusements: Working Women and Leisure in Turn-of-the-century New York, by Kathy Peiss (TPB, 1986, $2)
Eight Hours For What We Will: Workers and Leisure in an Industrial City, 1870-1920, by Roy Rosenzweig (TPB, 1991, $2)
(The industrial city studied is Worcester, Mass.)
Dance halls, amusement parks, movie theaters, concert halls and saloons... all became popular places to spend leisure time. After 8 hour days came into being, people had the time to ponder how they wanted to spend those extra hours, and businesses had the time to figure out how to make money off all those people with extra time on their hands. But were these leisure activities moral? If so, for whom were they moral- for men only, for married women only? Who decided what was right, and what the consequences were for people who stepped outside society's norms?
Women began to vote, and felt more powerful, while many men working in factories felt less powerful. And what of the immigrants? Black Americans? Mothers with large families? What were the differences between middle and working class leisure? Learn the answers here. Look for these books in the sociology section, avail. 2/1.
