Coercion, Contract, and Free Labor in the Nineteenth Century
(Part of the Cambridge Historical Studies in American Law and Society Series)
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Book Overview
This book presents a fundamental reassessment of the nature of wage labor in the nineteenth century, focusing on the common use of penal sanctions in England to enforce wage labor agreements. Professor Steinfeld argues that wage workers were not employees at will but were often bound to their employment by enforceable labor agreements, which employers used whenever available to manage their labor costs and supply. In the northern United States, where employers normally could not use penal sanctions, the common law made other contract remedies available, also placing employers in a position to enforce labor agreements. Modern free wage labor only came into being late in the nineteenth century, as a result of reform legislation that restricted the contract remedies employers could legally use.
Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:0521774004
ISBN13:9780521774000
Release Date:February 2001
Publisher:Cambridge University Press
Length:342 Pages
Weight:1.36 lbs.
Dimensions:0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"
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