Ocean State Libraries

Her rallying cry was famous: "Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living." Mother Jones (1837-1930) was a celebrated organizer and agitator, the very soul of protest movements in the early twentieth century. At coal strikes, steel strikes, railroad, textile, and brewery strikes, Mother Jones was always there, stirring the workers to action and enraging the powerful. When Mother Jones began her career as a "hell-raiser," as she put it, she...

Over twenty years after its initial publication, Annelise Orleck's Common Sense and a Little Fire continues to resonate with its harrowing story of activism, labor, and women's history. Orleck traces the personal and public lives of four immigrant women activists who left a lasting imprint on American politics. Though they have rarely made more than cameo appearances in previous histories, Rose Schneiderman, Fannia Cohn, Clara Lemlich Shavelson, and...

"A historical fiction novel in verse detailing the life of Clara Lemlich and her struggle for women's labor rights in the early 20th century in New York."--

Chronicles the events surrounding the 1909 International Ladies Garment Workers Union strike, in which twenty thousand workers from five hundred shirtwaist factories went on strike to demand better hours, higher wages, and safer working conditions.

A biography of the determined labor organizer of the early twentieth century who became known as Mother Jones.