Capitalist Workingman's Paradises Revisited: Corporate Welfare Work in Great Britain, the USA, Germany and France in the Golden Age of Capitalism, 1880-1930

203 Pages·2016·1.173 MB·English

by  Gier, Erik de

CAPITALIST
Corporate Welfare Work in Great Britain,
WORKINGMAN’S
the USA, Germany and France in the
PARADISES
Golden Age of Capitalism, 1880-1930
REVISITED
Erik de Gier
Capitalist Workingman’s Paradises Revisited

Capitalist Workingman’s Paradises
Revisited
Corporate Welfare Work in Great Britain, the USA,
Germany and France in the Golden Age of Capitalism,
1880‑1930
Erik de Gier
Amsterdam University Press
Cover design: Gijs Mathijs Ontwerpers, Amsterdam
Lay-out: Crius Group, Hulshout
Amsterdam University Press English-language titles are distributed in the US and Canada by
the University of Chicago Press.
isbn 978 90 8964 581 4
e-isbn 978 90 4851 995 8 (pdf)
doi 10.5117/9789089645814
nur 762 / 906
© Erik de Gier / Amsterdam University Press B.V., Amsterdam 2016
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of
this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted,
in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise)
without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book.
Every effort has been made to obtain permission to use all copyrighted illustrations
reproduced in this book. Nonetheless, whosoever believes to have rights to this material is
advised to contact the publisher.
Table of contents
Acknowledgements 9
Preface 11
1 Introduction 13
2 Secular and purist origins of enlightened capitalism 27
2.1 Introduction 27
2.2 Robert Owen’s social reforms 28
2.3 Jeremy Bentham and the National Charity Company 32
2.4 French utopian socialism: François Marie Charles Fourier
(1772-1837) 34
2.5 Quakers in England, America, and social reform 36
2.6 Conclusion 38
3 Victorian England 41
From Coketown to Port Sunlight, Bournville and the Garden City
Movement
3.1 Introduction 41
3.2 The Industrial Revolution in England 42
3.3 Cottonpolis, Coketown, Manchester 43
3.4 The role of labour utopias 47
3.5 Industrial garden cities and welfare capitalism in Britain 52
3.6 Conclusion 65
4 ‘The American Way’ 67
Factory system, mass production, welfare capitalism, and company
towns in the US
4.1 Introduction 67
4.2 Labour utopias in the US 69
4.3 The Industrial Revolution, the development of the factory
system, and mass production in America 73
4.4 Welfare capitalism and model company towns 77
4.5 Conclusion 102
5 Worker colonies and settlements , joy in work, and
enlightened entrepreneurs in Germany 105
5.1 Introduction 105
5.2 The German industrial revolution 107
5.3 Early welfare work: Worker colonies and settlements and
Krupp’s welfare work policy 109
5.4 Social reform movements, factory architecture, and worker
Gartenstädte 120
5.5 Quality production and joy in work 126
5.6 Conclusion 131
6 France 133
From the Mulhousian welfare work model to the Taylorist Turn
6.1 Introduction 133
6.2 The French industrial revolution 134
6.3 The impact of Fourier’s labour utopia in France 135
6.4 Paternalism and social policy in France before 1900 138
6.5 Welfare work and social betterment before 1914 145
6.6 Welfare work during and after the First World War until the
1930s 156
6.7 Conclusion 158
7 A comparison of welfare work between Great Britain, the US,
Germany, and France 161
7.1 Introduction 161
7.2 Country comparison of welfare work 162
8 Learning from past experience 173
Bibliography 181
Index 193
List of illustrations
Image 1 House at Port Sunlight, England, built for the workers 57
Image 2 The shops in Bournville, Birmingham, England 62
Image 3 The town of Pullman, Illinois, USA, East View from Top
of the Arcade Building, 19th century 90
Image 4 Fordlandia Dance Hall, Boa Vista, Brazil, circa 1933 101
Image 5 View of Margarethenhöhe, Essen, about 1912, Krupp,
Esssen, Germany 125
Image 6 Vue d’ ensemble du Familistère ou Palais social - Overview
of the Familistère or Social Palace, Guise, France 148

Acknowledgements
Various persons contributed to the writing of this book. Firstly, I am grate-
ful to Professor Marcel van der Linden (International Institute of Social
History, IISH, Amsterdam), who, at an initial stage, was willing to discuss
the idea of the book with me. Furthermore, various persons commented
on parts of the manuscript: Dr. Lout Bots (Radboud University, Nijmegen)
commented on the first two chapters of the manuscript. Professor Joseph
White (Pittsburgh University) commented more specifically on chapter 2,
regarding secular and purist origins of enlightened capitalism, as well as
the chapter on Great Britain. Dr. Jill M. Jensen (Penn State University) did
the same with respect to the chapter on the United States. Subsequently,
Professor Jacques van Hoof (Radboud University and Leiden University) and
Dr. Jill M. Jensen (Penn State University) extensively reviewed the whole
manuscript. I am certain that their comments contributed substantially to
the quality of the definite manuscript.
I also want to thank Saskia Gieling, Louise Visser and Jaap Wagenaar,
the responsible editors at Amsterdam University Press (AUP), who made
possible the printing and publishing of this book. Thanks, finally, to the
various institutions willing to provide me with the illustrative material
included in the book.