Meet Joe Copper

Masculinity and Race on Montana's World War II Home Front

Nonfiction, History, Americas, United States, 20th Century, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Gender Studies
Cover of the book Meet Joe Copper by Matthew L. Basso, University of Chicago Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Matthew L. Basso ISBN: 9780226044224
Publisher: University of Chicago Press Publication: July 17, 2013
Imprint: University of Chicago Press Language: English
Author: Matthew L. Basso
ISBN: 9780226044224
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Publication: July 17, 2013
Imprint: University of Chicago Press
Language: English

“I realize that I am a soldier of production whose duties are as important in this war as those of the man behind the gun.” So began the pledge that many home front men took at the outset of World War II when they went to work in the factories, fields, and mines while their compatriots fought in the battlefields of Europe and on the bloody beaches of the Pacific. The male experience of working and living in wartime America is rarely examined, but the story of men like these provides a crucial counter-narrative to the national story of Rosie the Riveter and GI Joe that dominates scholarly and popular discussions of World War II.

In Meet Joe Copper, Matthew L. Basso describes the formation of a powerful, white, working-class masculine ideology in the decades prior to the war, and shows how it thrived—on the job, in the community, and through union politics. Basso recalls for us the practices and beliefs of the first- and second-generation immigrant copper workers of Montana while advancing the historical conversation on gender, class, and the formation of a white ethnic racial identity. Meet Joe Copper provides a context for our ideas of postwar masculinity and whiteness and finally returns the men of the home front to our reckoning of the Greatest Generation and the New Deal era.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

“I realize that I am a soldier of production whose duties are as important in this war as those of the man behind the gun.” So began the pledge that many home front men took at the outset of World War II when they went to work in the factories, fields, and mines while their compatriots fought in the battlefields of Europe and on the bloody beaches of the Pacific. The male experience of working and living in wartime America is rarely examined, but the story of men like these provides a crucial counter-narrative to the national story of Rosie the Riveter and GI Joe that dominates scholarly and popular discussions of World War II.

In Meet Joe Copper, Matthew L. Basso describes the formation of a powerful, white, working-class masculine ideology in the decades prior to the war, and shows how it thrived—on the job, in the community, and through union politics. Basso recalls for us the practices and beliefs of the first- and second-generation immigrant copper workers of Montana while advancing the historical conversation on gender, class, and the formation of a white ethnic racial identity. Meet Joe Copper provides a context for our ideas of postwar masculinity and whiteness and finally returns the men of the home front to our reckoning of the Greatest Generation and the New Deal era.

More books from University of Chicago Press

Cover of the book Derivatives and the Wealth of Societies by Matthew L. Basso
Cover of the book Acolytes of Nature by Matthew L. Basso
Cover of the book A Companion to The Iliad by Matthew L. Basso
Cover of the book Human Capital by Matthew L. Basso
Cover of the book Deadly Edge by Matthew L. Basso
Cover of the book The Freudian Robot by Matthew L. Basso
Cover of the book Reckoning with Matter by Matthew L. Basso
Cover of the book How Places Make Us by Matthew L. Basso
Cover of the book The Only Woman in the Room by Matthew L. Basso
Cover of the book Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. and Legal Logic by Matthew L. Basso
Cover of the book Laughter at the Foot of the Cross by Matthew L. Basso
Cover of the book Plunder Squad by Matthew L. Basso
Cover of the book Building a Market by Matthew L. Basso
Cover of the book Electing Judges by Matthew L. Basso
Cover of the book Genetics and the Social Behaviour of the Dog by Matthew L. Basso
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy