Workers On the Edge tells the dramatic and often tumultuous story of 100 years of American life. The author takes us from Cincinnati’s artisan workshops to the modern machine age; from the optimistic promises of republicanism to the harsh realities of industrial capitalism. In so doing, Ross explains how American workers came to understand their role in American society and suggests the reasons why Americans today think of their nation as a classless society.

Reviews:

“This excellent book…is a major contribution to the continuing reinterpretation of American working-class history…. Ross accurately describes, in the context of one locale, a general process that swept through industrializing America. Consequently, Workers On the Edge might be taken as a rough blueprint for the long-awaited synthesis of the ‘new’ labor history.”
-Sean Wilentz,
American Historical Review