Reviews of The
Five Dollar Day
"Meyer's
study exemplifies the 'new' labor history that emphasizes the worker rather
than his institutions. With his attention to class, ethnicity, and work processes,
this book resembles the contributions of Herbert Gutman, David Brody, and David
Montgomery. Yet it goes beyond the history 'from the bottom up approach, for
Meyer also shows how management decisions deeply affected workers' lives. His
well-written and well-researched study persuasively demonstrates that labor
history must also be viewed 'from the top down.'"
Graham Adams, Jr.,
American Historical Review, V. 87 (June 1982)
"... What Meyer
has done is to place the story in proper historical perspective within the history
of the developing industrial technology, the response of unskilled immigrant
workers to that technology, and the development of management techniques to
attempt to shape workers to a new factory environment...."
"In this fine
book, Meyer shows that control over machines was easier to acquire that control
over men...."
"This is a splendid
book. Meyer has used to great advantage the historical treasure trove that is
the Ford Motor Company Archives and teased from its difficult, but plentiful
records, a cohesive and coherent story that not only illuminated a chapter in
the history of the Ford Motor Company but also resonates with meaning for the
history of technology, of labor, of labor-management relations, and of modern
industrial society."
Joyce Shaw Peterson,
Journal of American History, V. 69 (September 1982)
"The Five Dollar
Day is a fine example of the 'new' social history and one that will be useful
to sociologists and to students of the labor process. Stephen Meyer gives a
richly detailed account of the transformation of work and 'control' at Ford's
Highland Park Plant between 1908 and 1921...."
"... Without comparable
studies of other firms it is hard to verify either interpretation of the link
between labor policies and working-class politics. For that reason, among others,
it is to be hoped that the new labor history will continue to produce works
of the high quality of Meyer's The Five Dollar Day."
Jeffrey Haydu, American
Journal of Sociology, V. 88 (September 1982)
"With the automobile
Industry engulfed in crisis, Stephen Meyer's history of the origins and social
consequences of the Ford assembly line could not be more timely. His work is
the clearest and most penetrating discussion of the intimate relationship between
technological innovation, managerial ideology, and working class activity that
has yet appeared on this important subject. While many historians pay lip service
to interdisciplinary analysis, Meyer actually plunges in drawing together various
strands from some of the most recent approaches to the history of technology,
and to labor, business, and immigrant history. His study is a fine extension
of the pioneering work of Merritt Roe Smith, David Noble, and David Montgomery.
With them, Meyer forcefully reminds us that the question of social power is
inextricably bound with the process of technological change."
Nelson Lichtenstein,
Social Science History
"There is no doubting the value
of this work, which is a ‘case-study' reinforcement of some of the theses of
E. P. Thompson, Herbert Gutman, and other ‘new labor' historians...."
Gerald Sorin, Labor History,
(Spring 1985)
"Meyer's reading
of the relevant secondary literature is careful. More significant, he has
uncovered genuinely new material in the archives. The books central chapters
are studded withextraordinary quotations revealing mind-sets and inhouse strategies
from which the Lee reforms of 1913 and subsequent worker repression emerged.
Presentation of such a mass of new material could well have lacked coherence
and left the reader awash in particularities. Meyer's gift for organization
has avoided this pitfall. The result is an eminently readable and historically
provocative book."
"... Nevertheless,
important as this integration is, it would be small-minded to stress the flaw
in the face of the really marvelous contribution Meyer has already given us."
John Staudenmaier, S.J., Detroit
In Perspective (Fall 1982)
"... Stephen
Meyer has draw attention back to the human dimension of mass production work
and has provided us with an important case study which can be read profitably
by business and labor historians as well as by students of technology. The
book makes its greatest contribution as a social history of technology and
an analysis of management theory and practice...."
"Still, Stephen
Meyer has produced an impressive case study which not only provides a wealth
of detail withwhich we can expand our generalizations but also raises many
questions with which students of mass production workers need to deal."
James Barrett, International
Labor and Working Class History, V. 22 (Fall 1982)
revfive.htm, 28-Aug-2003