The Bread-winners: A Social Study

John Milton HayProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.9

Word count: 462K words
Chapters: 47

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Bread-winners: A Social Study by John HayAuthor: Hay, John, 1838-1905,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Jul 17, 2005

Editor's review

"The Bread-winners: A Social Study" is a social novel by John Hay, set in an American industrial city and centering on labor-capital conflict, class division, and community order. As a "social study" novel, its value lies not in thrilling plot but in presenting, through literary means, the contradictions of late nineteenth-century American social transformation: workers' demands, employers' anxieties, and the dilemmas of local governance are all woven into character relationships and everyday scenes. Having long been in politics and diplomacy, the author observes society with a pragmatic and cautious temperament; his depictions of the labor movement, urban security, and public opinion offer today's readers tangible material for understanding the American social mentality of that era. Written in English, the book has a nineteenth-century literary style, a slow narrative pace, and interwoven dialogue and commentary, suiting readers willing to read closely and patiently. It is better read as a text at the intersection of social history and literary history than as entertainment with a strong plot.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in nineteenth-century American social history and labor-capital relations
Literature students studying the tradition of social-problem fiction in American literature
Readers who enjoy slow-paced, discursive narratives and are willing to consult background materials
Advanced English learners seeking to broaden their historical sense of the language through original English texts

Not a good fit for

Readers of popular fiction seeking fast-paced plots and strong suspense
Beginners with little English reading experience who are not yet used to nineteenth-century literary English
Readers expecting systematic sociological theory rather than literary narrative

Reading tips

Read a page of the preface or first chapter to see whether you can adapt to the nineteenth-century English narrative pace before deciding on close or selective reading.
While reading, note the representative figures and core demands on both sides of labor and capital to trace the lines of conflict.
Pair the reading with a Chinese-language background article on social contradictions during American industrialization to help understand the book's context.
If time is limited, focus on the chapters dealing with the strike and community order, and skim the rest.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book an original English work, and how difficult is it to read?

It is an original English work, written in nineteenth-century literary English with long sentences and considerable commentary. Readers with college-level English can get through it with a dictionary, but should slow down; it is not recommended as light reading.

Does "social study" in the title mean it is an academic work?

No. It is a novel that presents social problems in fictional form; the author observes labor-capital conflict and urban governance through characters and plot rather than arguing like a sociological paper. Read it as literature while noting its social observations.

Can I understand it without a background in American history?

You can follow the main story, but your depth of understanding will suffer. It is advisable to first learn the basics of late nineteenth-century American industrialization, the labor movement, and urban governance; then the characters' positions and the origins of the conflicts will be easier to grasp.

Is this book suitable for learning English?

It suits readers with a solid reading foundation who wish to encounter historical literary English, but it is not suitable as an introductory textbook. The book has many long sentences and period vocabulary; focus on understanding the content, with dictionary lookup and paragraph retelling as support, rather than doing sentence-by-sentence language exercises.

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About the author

John Milton Hay Author · American · 1838–1905

John Hay (1838–1905) was an American statesman, poet, and writer, born in Salem, Indiana. He served as President Lincoln's private secretary, as ambassador to Britain, and as U.S. Secretary of State, and he shaped the Open Door policy toward China. His literary output spans poetry and prose: Pike County Ballads and Other Poems is known for its vernacular American voice and narrative manner, while Castilian Days records his impressions of Spain. He also wrote the social novel The Bread-winners: A Social Study and co-authored a ten-volume Life of Lincoln. Four of his works are held here, but public information is limited, making it difficult to detail his creative periods or later reputation; the surviving works nevertheless show a writer who combined political experience with a literary touch, drawing on personal observation and American local life. He died in New Hampshire in 1905.