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Respectability on the Line
Gender, Race, and Labor along British and Colonial Indian Railways
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2026
About this book
Respectability on the Line offers a social and cultural history of railway labor in Britain and colonial India from the 1840s through World War I. The book treats the railway industry as a microcosm through which to study the history of capitalism in the liberal imperial era. Using company records, Mattie Armstrong-Price shows how executives shaped the domestic and working lives of higher-grade employees with an eye to cultivating their respectability. Meanwhile workers' writings reveal how railway towns provided opportunities for some employees to maintain non-heteronormative living arrangements. The book tracks these histories of everyday life while also outlining stories of early trade unionism. In Britain, railway unionists established benefit funds that mimicked company-sponsored provident funds, while in colonial India workers fought to gain access to company benefits on equal terms. This comparative study shows how industrial labor was made through conflict, subversion, and accommodation across an uneven imperial field.
Author / Editor information
Contributor: Mattie Armstrong-Price
Mattie Armstrong-Price is Assistant Professor of History at Fordham University.
Topics
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Frontmatter
i -
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Contents
vii -
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Acknowledgments
ix -
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Introduction
1 - Part One. Railway Paternalism and the Making of Sexual Cultures of Labor, 1840s–1860s
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1. Imperfect Technologies of Moralization: Railway Paternalism in Mid-Nineteenth- Century Britain
19 -
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2. Strains of Permissiveness, Fields of Force: Railway Paternalism in Colonial India after 1857
51 - Part Two. Making Railway Unionism between Britain and Colonial India, 1870s–1880s
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3. Paternal Figures: The Politics of Race and Gender in Early Railway Unionism
79 - Part Three. Mass Movements and the Making of Social Liberalism, 1890s–1910s
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4. Laboring behind the Curtain: Industrial Unionism and Social Liberal Governance in Britain
111 -
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5. Conveying Grievances in the Vernacular: Nationalist-Aligned Unionism and Social Liberal Reform in Colonial India
132 -
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Conclusion
161 -
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Notes
171 -
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Bibliography
201 -
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Index
211
Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
February 24, 2026
eBook ISBN:
9780520421578
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Main content:
234
eBook ISBN:
9780520421578
Keywords for this book
industrial labor history; comparative empire; liberal modernity; working-class respectability; everyday life histories; social mobility; labor conflict; subversive practices; industrial discipline; class formation; labor politics; cultural negotiations; modern industrial society; transnational labor studies; workplace governance
