The leisure we enjoy today--weekends, vacations, etc--was not granted freely by employers. Rather, it was taken without permission by "renegade" workers of decades past. These included slaves, drunken craftsmen, unmotivated factory hands, etc. For instance, plantation slaves established the practice of "vacation"--much to the annoyance of their masters. (They'd agree to return in exchange for not being punished.)
So argues historian Thaddeus Russell, speaking in Seattle in October 2010.
Thaddeus Russell is author of A Renegade History of the United States (Free Press, 2010).
Russells talk was recorded by Todd Boyle and broadcast on "Mind Over Matters" by Mike McCormick (www.talkingsticktv.org). I have condensed the talk a little and divided it into two parts.
Previously broadcast by NWN (as #161) in April 2011.
New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "gun") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.
You can download this installment also from The Internet Archive (www.archive.org). The Program Information page at archive.org (for NWN #161) is here: https://archive.org/details/NewWorldNotes161-Renegadespart1 . From there you can download the program in MP3 and other formats. The page also has a player for online listening.
More details, photos, nice links, & other good stuff on the show's Web site: http://newworldnotes.blogspot.com
SERIES OVERVIEW -- Political and social commentary in a variety of genres. Exploring the gap between what we want ... and what they're trying to make us settle for. "Date recorded," below, = date of first scheduled broadcast.
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