The Cruel Years American Voices at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century

What was life like for a working person one hundred years ago? The Cruel Years offers readers a poignant and candid glimpse of the turmoil, oppression, and injustice of life in the early 1900s told by twenty-two working women and men who, through their short narratives, reveal the resiliency of their lives in the face of unimaginable horrors. Written in the actual words of these working people, the narratives take us back one hundred years with vivid accounts of the struggle to survive among the poor and powerless: a young woman fights for better working conditions, a native American tries to preserve his identity against incredible odds, a coal miner warns of lethal dangers, a sweatshop girl tries to enjoy life, a Hungarian immigrant in the South rages at his economic and cultural enslavement.