Plain Folk: The Life Stories of Undistinguished Americans

By Mary Louise Kelly

Book Overview

Plain Folk depicts both the ordinary occupations and ethnic and racial diversity of America at the turn of the century. Katzman and Tuttle have drawn upon 75 brief autobiographies or "lifelets" of working-class Americans published between 1902 and 1906 in The Independent magazine. Among the seventeen life stories included here are those of a Lithuanian stockyards worker in Chicago, a Polish sweatshop girl and a Chinese merchant in New York City, a black peon in rural Georgia, and a Swedish farmer in Minnesota. Together they provide an unmediated and seldom-seen view of American life during this period.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0252009061
• ISBN13: 9780252009068
• Release Date: February 1982
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.68 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.4" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Fabulous primary accounts of life at the turn-of-the-century

Excellent! Hear the stories of people's lives as they lived them in the early 1900s. From a Georgia peon to a woman labor organizer to a Swedish homesteader, all accounts are fascinating and really worth reading in order to fully appreciate and understand the time.