It has been brought to our attention that there is another publication called The Awl! Unfortunately, it seems to have ceased publication sometime in the mid to late 1840s, even though it was only first published in 1843. Documented in Norman Ware's fantastic The Industrial Worker, 1840-1860: the reaction of American industrial society to the advance of the industrial revolution, which was published by Houghton Mifflin in 1924. This bit of history was brought to our attention by the widely-read Aaaron Swartz, praise his name. Let's do some reading!
First, let's let Mr. Ware set the scene of the time, the hot and bothered 1840s. This is an incredible passage.
IN THE MIDST OF THEIR HILARITY!
And now let us look a bit at the progress of industry and the conditions of the working person-which resulted in an outcropping of radical publications. One complaint was that the efficiency of the machines was adding vast wealth to the owners of those machines and was providing not so much for those who would now operate those machines.
You don't say!
And now, let us turn to this examination of the shoemakers of the time-and their exquisitely well-named publication. (This section is a condensed version of the chapter, with some omissions.) If you have the time, it is a truly great read.
A- Ha! I knew Choire and Balk were journeyman cordwainers!
I am waining my cords so haaaarrrd right now.
No no no, a modern cordwainer is a customs officer of the heart.
That's the second time I've heard that today. ChatRoulette gets pretty weird sometimes.
"We hold it our duty to maintain the value of labor that it may itself be respectable...and respected."
Plus ca change...
"... and less stupid."
The means of oppression might have changed, and the oppressor taken new guises, but The Awl 2.0 still proudly holds aloft the banner of justice, equality and righteousness.
And bear videos. That part is new.
Actually, the original Awl had a weekly engraving called "Recent Ursine Follies."
I think I saw a band once called The Wrongs of Hungarian Liberals.
This is fantastic.
Marvelous!
How is there not already a band called Disciples of the Newness?
The cordwainers never reconciled themselves to the wrongs of the Hungarian liberals.
It's sad, really.
More history: the shoemakers went on strike and the bosses got injunctions prohibiting the strikes because they were antitrust violations (or whatever it was called prior to antitrust laws). The first major piece of labor legislation was a law prohibiting the use of an antitrust injunction to stop strikes.
The bloggers claimed that the publishers while pretending to pay a living wage, did by other means reduce them to degradation and the loss of that self-respect which had made the journalists and writers the pride of the world.
ayuh
"labor saving devices so-called that had not lightened labor"
These men were prophets.
Also, I'm adding "artisan shoe maker" to my list of imaginary jobs I'd really like.
There's a parallel here involving Nick Denton as modern-day factory baron. But I haven't quite worked it out yet.
Could we perhaps be in another "Hot Air period" of American society?
God bless the shoemakers.
That paragraph about "their dependence on their masters increasing,"...isn't that why The Awl boys left Gawker? Was this Web site DEMANDED BY PROPHECY?
"Coincidences are puns of destiny." --Koestler
This is the greatest.