{"product_id":"building-a-social-contract-modern-workers-houses-in-early-twentieth-century-detroit-hardcover","title":"Building a Social Contract: Modern Workers' Houses in Early-Twentieth Century Detroit - Hardcover","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eMichael McCulloch\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe dream of the modern worker's house emerged in early twentieth-century America as wage earners gained access to new, larger, and better-equipped dwellings. \u003ci\u003eBuilding a Social Contract\u003c\/i\u003e is a cogent history of the houses those workers dreamed of and labored for. Michael McCulloch chronicles the efforts of employers, government agencies, and the building industry who, along with workers themselves, produced an unprecedented boom in housing construction that peaked in the mid-1920s. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Through oral histories, letters, photographs, and period fiction, McCulloch traces wage earners' agency in negotiating a new implicit social contract, one that rewarded hard work with upward mobility in modern houses. This promise reflected workers' increased bargaining power but, at the same time, left them increasingly vulnerable to layoffs. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003ci\u003eBuilding a Social Contract\u003c\/i\u003e focuses on Detroit, the quintessential city of the era, where migrant workers came and were Americanized, and real estate agents and the speculative housebuilding industry thrived. The Motor City epitomized the struggle of Black workers in this period, who sought better lives through industrial labor but struggled to translate their wages into housing security amid racist segregation and violence. When Depression-era unemployment created an eviction crisis, the social contract unraveled, and workers rose up-at the polls and in the streets-to create a labor movement that reshaped American capitalism for decades. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Today, the lessons McCulloch provides from early twentieth-century Detroit are a necessary reminder that wages are not enough, and only working-class political power can secure affordable housing.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eMichael McCulloch\u003c\/b\u003e is Associate Professor of Architecture at Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 240\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.56 x 9 x 6 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e September 22, 2023\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47461150687410,"sku":"9781439923917","price":159.12,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0770\/3891\/1666\/files\/5e5f73dd0580087b68bcc3e57eec64cc_da785504-132c-41ac-8ae6-367a1f0b5d32.webp?v=1778941887","url":"https:\/\/box.dadyminds.org\/products\/building-a-social-contract-modern-workers-houses-in-early-twentieth-century-detroit-hardcover","provider":"DADYMINDS BOX","version":"1.0","type":"link"}