Description
Studies of American industry often cite Lowell, Massachusetts, as an early model for business practices. Scholars have sought to give an explanation for the city’s rise to prominence, the have an effect on of its textile mills on workers and on commerce, and its part in regional development and American prosperity. Laurence Gross looks beyond these issues. That specialize in Lowell’s Boott Cotton Mills, he examines the industry’s struggle to handle its prominence, the causes of its decline, and its ultimate flight south.
Gross puts much of the blame for the pattern of events on the mill-owners themselves. They resisted reinvestment, so their operations became less efficient. They kept antiquated machinery running long after it used to be protected to take action, they usually were slow to answer issues of worker safety. The increased textile demands of World War II, Gross explains, only forestalled the mills’ inevitable demise.