The Story of Labor: American Society and Politics in Ruth McKenney’s 'Industrial Valley'

Abstract

Ruth McKenney’s Industrial Valley (1939) is an American labor novel that portrays the encounters of rubber workers in Akron, Ohio, in the 1930s strike period. McKenney addresses the growth of American labor movement around the economic crisis, FDR’s New Deal regulations, and labor unions. She juxtaposes journalistic, literary and historical narrative styles in her portrayal of the time. The labor activism of the 1930s reflected workers’ neglected demands about wages, working conditions, and unionization. During the labor reform era, the struggle for organized labor between company unions, the American Federation of Labor and the workers triggered a strike period in the rubber and automobile industries. The labor efficiency methods and economic downturn resulted in periodical layoffs, rising unemployment rates, constant wage cuts, and low wages for workers. At this stage, sit-down strikes started to change the traditional view of unions and labor activism. This new peaceful organization of workers and unions opened a way to negotiate working conditions with employers. In this light, this article aims to present Industrial Valley as a microcosm of the struggles of the American working-class in the 1930s. As the article particularly underlines, McKenney’s labor novel provides an insight into the process leading to the Akron rubber strike of 1936, which transformed communication and interactions between workers, union organizers, employers, mass media, and the US government towards a mutual recognition of their claims and positions. The article provides a narrative analysis to McKenney’s docunovel by underlining the rhetorical uses of humor and irony, the hybrid journalistic-literary narrative, and the critical historical argument about the Akron rubber strike.

Keywords

• North American Language
• Literature and Culture

Files

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References

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2. Bernstein, I. (1969/2010). The turbulent years: A history of the American worker, 1933-1941. Haymarket Books.
3. Brecher, J. (2009). The decline of strikes. In A. Brenner, B. Day, & I. Ness (Eds.), The encyclopedia of strikes in American history (pp. 72–80). M.E. Sharpe.
4. Bremer, W. W. (1975). Along the “American way”: The New Deal’s work relief programs for the unemployed. The Journal of American History, 62(3), 636–652. https://doi.org/10.2307/2936218
5. Brenner, A. (2009). Strikes in American history. In A. Brenner, B. Day, & I. Ness (Eds.), The encyclopedia of strikes in American history (pp. 3–15). M.E. Sharpe.
6. Fennell, D. (1993). [Review of the book Industrial valley, by R. McKenney]. ILR Review, 46(4), 747–748. https://doi.org/10.2307/2524339
7. Foley, B. (1986). The documentary novel and the problem of borders. In Telling the truth: The theory and practice of documentary fiction (pp. 25–41). Cornell University Press.
8. Johnson, E. (1940). Three proletarian novels [Review of the books Rope of gold; The stars and stripes forever; Industrial valley, by J. Herbst, E. Paul, & R. McKenney]. The Kenyon Review, 2(2), 245–247.
9. Kaufman, B. E. (2012). Wage theory, New Deal labor policy, and the Great Depression: Were government and unions to blame? Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 65(3), 501–532. https://doi.org/10.1177/001979391206500302
10. McKenney, R. (1939/1992). Industrial valley. ILR Press.
11. Meyer, R. (2009). The rise and fall of the sit-down strike. In A. Brenner, B. Day, & I. Ness (Eds.), The encyclopedia of strikes in American history (pp. 204–215). M.E. Sharpe.
12. Montgomery, D. (1994). Labor and the political leadership of New Deal America. International Review of Social History, 39(3), 335–360. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020859000112726
13. Nelson, D. (1982). Origins of the sit-down era: Worker militancy and innovation in the rubber industry, 1934-38. Labor History, 23(2), 198–225. https://doi.org/10.1080/00236568208584653
14. Nelson, D. (1984). The CIO at bay: Labor militancy and politics in Akron, 1936-1938. The Journal of American History, 71(3), 565–586. https://doi.org/10.2307/1887472
15. Nelson, D. (1988). American rubber workers & organized labor, 1900-1941. Princeton University Press.
16. Nelson, D. (1992). Introduction. In R. McKenney, Industrial valley (pp. xi–xx). ILR Press.
17. Nelson, D. (2001). The other New Deal and labor: The regulatory state and the unions, 1933–1940. Journal of Policy History, 13(3), 367–390. https://doi.org/10.1353/jph.2001.0010
18. Rosswurm, S. (n.d.). Congress of Industrial Organizations. In Encyclopedia of Chicago. Retrieved from http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/326.html
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Cite this publication

@article{ilimen2025story,
  author = {{\.I}limen, Ezgi},
  title = {{The Story of Labor: American Society and Politics in Ruth McKenney's 'Industrial Valley'}},
  journal = {Hacettepe University Journal of the Faculty of Letters},
  volume = {0},
  number = {Advanced Online},
  pages = {535--550},
  publisher = {Hacettepe {\"U}niversitesi},
  year = {2025},
  month = {8},
  issn = {1301-5737},
  url = {https://hacettepe.hbtech.com.tr/en/publication/the-story-of-labor-american-society-and-politics-in-ruth-mckenneys-industrial-valley},
  language = {en},
  keywords = {North American Language, Literature and Culture},
  abstract = {Ruth McKenney's Industrial Valley (1939) is an American labor novel that portrays the encounters of rubber workers in Akron, Ohio, in the 1930s strike period. McKenney addresses the growth of American labor movement around the economic crisis, FDR's New Deal regulations, and labor unions. She juxtaposes journalistic, literary and historical narrative styles in her portrayal of the time. The labor activism of the 1930s reflected workers' neglected demands about wages, working conditions, and unionization. During the labor reform era, the struggle for organized labor between company unions, the American Federation of Labor and the workers triggered a strike period in the rubber and automobile industries. The labor efficiency methods and economic downturn resulted in periodical layoffs, rising unemployment rates, constant wage cuts, and low wages for workers. At this stage, sit-down strikes started to change the traditional view of unions and labor activism. This new peaceful organization of workers and unions opened a way to negotiate working conditions with employers. In this light, this article aims to present Industrial Valley as a microcosm of the struggles of the American working-class in the 1930s. As the article particularly underlines, McKenney's labor novel provides an insight into the process leading to the Akron rubber strike of 1936, which transformed communication and interactions between workers, union organizers, employers, mass media, and the US government towards a mutual recognition of their claims and positions. The article provides a narrative analysis to McKenney's docunovel by underlining the rhetorical uses of humor and irony, the hybrid journalistic-literary narrative, and the critical historical argument about the Akron rubber strike.},
  affiliation = {HACETTEPE {\"U}N{\.I}VERS{\.I}TES{\.I}}
}

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AB  - Ruth McKenney’s Industrial Valley (1939) is an American labor novel that portrays the encounters of rubber workers in Akron, Ohio, in the 1930s strike period. McKenney addresses the growth of American labor movement around the economic crisis, FDR’s New Deal regulations, and labor unions. She juxtaposes journalistic, literary and historical narrative styles in her portrayal of the time. The labor activism of the 1930s reflected workers’ neglected demands about wages, working conditions, and unionization. During the labor reform era, the struggle for organized labor between company unions, the American Federation of Labor and the workers triggered a strike period in the rubber and automobile industries. The labor efficiency methods and economic downturn resulted in periodical layoffs, rising unemployment rates, constant wage cuts, and low wages for workers. At this stage, sit-down strikes started to change the traditional view of unions and labor activism. This new peaceful organization of workers and unions opened a way to negotiate working conditions with employers. In this light, this article aims to present Industrial Valley as a microcosm of the struggles of the American working-class in the 1930s. As the article particularly underlines, McKenney’s labor novel provides an insight into the process leading to the Akron rubber strike of 1936, which transformed communication and interactions between workers, union organizers, employers, mass media, and the US government towards a mutual recognition of their claims and positions. The article provides a narrative analysis to McKenney’s docunovel by underlining the rhetorical uses of humor and irony, the hybrid journalistic-literary narrative, and the critical historical argument about the Akron rubber strike.
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