The Novel in the Study of the American Labor Movement

Abstract

SOCIAL scientists today exhibit an increasing regard for the contribution of literature to the study of social processes. Historians, in particular, recognize the usefulness of such supplementary materials as novels, dramas, and poems; and they have also acknowledged the impact of some authors upon sociopolitical developments.' In many instances, literary material, whether written contemporaneously or at a later date, may provide a refreshing insight into a period or event. It appears that one often grasps a situation better, not by laboriously plodding through reams of statistics, official reports, and the exact but none the less achromatic products of scholars, but by reading fictional accounts. Since the latter nineteenth century, there has been a considerable growth in the amount and diversity of literature concerned with the economic aspects of social processes. We are familiar with the era of the muckrakers when political, economic, and social issues were presented for public debate. This blossoming in