Reinventing Free Labor

This study is of the history of the padrone, a mafia-like immigrant boss who allegedly enslaved his compatriots.

Klappentext

One of the most infamous villains in North America during the Progressive Era was the padrone, a mafia-like immigrant boss who allegedly enslaved his compatriots and kept them uncivilized, unmanly, and unfree. In this first-ever history of the padrone, Gunther Peck argues that they were not primitive men but rather thoroughly modern entrepreneurs who used corporations, the labor contract, and the right to quit to create far-flung coercive networks. Drawing on Greek, Spanish, and Italian language sources, Peck analyzes how immigrant workers emancipated themselves using the tools of padrone power to their own advantage.

Inhalt
List of illustrations and tables; Acknowledgements; Introduction; Part I. The World Padrones Made: 1. Free land and unfree labor; 2. Padrones and corporations; 3. Defenders of contract; Part II. Reinventing Free Labor: 4. Manhood mobilized; 5. Mobilizing community; 6. Spaces of freedom; Epilogue: the vanishing padrone; Appendices; Bibliography; Index.