Distress, Dissent and Alienation : Hamilton Workers in the Great Depression

Contrary to most accounts of Canadian workers' responses to the Great Depression of the 1930s, this article portrays the majority of Hamilton workers as neither severely distressed nor especially prone to dissent. Much of the relative absence of dissent can be attributed to workers' powerlessness in very poor market conditions, but workers' quiescence should not be seen simply as a temporary, class-conscious strategy. Rather, many, perhaps …