Struggling with class relations at a Los Angeles aqueduct construction camp

Abstract

Western work camps offer unique opportunities to examine the evolution of class relations in American society during the late-19th and early-20th centuries. The short-term occupations that characterized many of those communities can be used to examine quality of life, working conditions, and relations among workers at particular places and moments in time. By comparing conditions in camps from different periods, meaningful insights can then be gained concerning changes in class relations over time. Class relations are examined at a camp occupied in 1912 and 1913 during the construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct. It is argued that the behavior of the camp’s workers and supervisory staff must be understood in the broader context of the history of class struggles and the negotiation of class identities. While national and global trends influenced local class dynamics, regional conditions ultimately determined the timing of particular transformations.