Mining Cultures: Men, Women and Leisure in Butte, 1914-41

Abstract

Mining Cultures: Men, Women and Leisure in Butte, 1914-41. By Mary Murphy. Women in American History Series. (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1997. Pp. xviii + 279, photographs, notes, bibliography, subject index. $39.95 cloth, $18.95 paper) Perhaps more has been written about Butte, Montana, than about any other city in the West. It is famous for its richest hill on earth, its rival copper barons, the Anaconda Copper Mining Company monopoly, the murder of IWW leader Frank Little during the labor/company conflicts before WWI; and, in the sixties, for the motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel, who seemed for a while to epitomize the hard living, diehard, masculine character of the place. Butte has never been much associated with the feminine aspects of culture (or rather, with those aspects we are inclined to attribute to women), but Mary Murphy's book, Mining Cultures: Men, Women and Leisure in Butte, 1914-41, goes a long way to filling in the outlines of the lives of Butte's women and children, and of its men, when they were not deep down in the mines. Mining Cultures is part of the Women in American History series from the University of Illinois Press, designed to redress the relative absence of women's lives and perspectives from history scholarship. Murphy's book does more than this. In its attention to the lives of women and children, and in its close look at the variety of recreational activities pursued by Butte's residents, Mining Cultures provides a fresh look at the history of Butte, which has almost always been centered around the work life of miners and mining companies. Originally Murphy's dissertation, the book is prodigiously researched from hundreds of diverse sources, and it delivers a highly satisfying level of detail about the daily life of Butte people. The chapters are arranged somewhat chronologically, but the real dividing scheme is the domains of human behavior described, i.e. Habits of Drink, Manners and Morals and Imagination's Spur (describing the impact of radio in people's lives). Of course, played a huge role in the history of Butte, and Murphy makes sure we understand the overarching explanation of Butte's social character: in the early days, immigrants who flocked to work in the mines were overwhelmingly single men, setting up the dynamic that influenced the city's life for years to come. Hard work and hard play were partners.... Condemned vices in other American cities were tolerated pastimes in Butte, a city designed for adult men (233). Men who risked their lives deep in the ground needed this intensity of play in their free time, and were not afraid of behaviors that might have appeared risky to family men. The mining companies, as well as the Catholic church, tacitly condoned behaviors that might have appeared risky to family men. The mining companies, as well as the Catholic church, tacitly condoned the rougher sorts of recreation, such as drinking, gambling, and prostitution, to keep the work force both satisfied and broke. In fact, Prostitution was one of the most common occupations for women in Butte in the early twentieth (77), and Butte maintained the nineteenth century distinction between good women and bad. Good women stayed home with the family, bad women inhabited the Red Light District on the working class east side. …