Introduction: The Past Made Public
Introduction: The Past Made Public
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Date
2022-04
Authors
Shackel, Paul
Advisor
Citation
Shackel, Paul A. 2022. “Introduction: The Past Made Public.” In The Oxford Handbook of Industrial Archaeology, edited by Eleanor Casella and Michael Nevell, 1-12. NY: Oxford University Press.
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Abstract
Industrial sites archaeology has, for a long time, memorialized the benefits of industrial
capitalism at the expense of those workers who toiled in the factories and mines. Research
has often emphasized the great engineering feats of the past, while the history of
labour has often been subordinated. By understanding and making the heritage of the
working class prominent at industrial sites illuminates the differences between labour
and capital in the past. This work can also provide new avenues to understanding inequalities
in our contemporary world. The call for labour justice that developed as a result of
the Lattimer miners’ strike in northeastern Pennsylvania, USA in 1897 is compared to the
recent Marikana miners’ strike in South Africa. Many of the injustices in the mining industry
that occurred in the USA and other western nations over a century ago now seem
to be exported to developing countries.