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Work, School, and Reform: A Comparison of Birmingham, England, and Pittsburh, USA, 1900–1950

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2008

Miriam Cohen  and
Michael Hanagan
Miriam Cohen
Affiliation:
Vassar College
Michael Hanagan
Affiliation:
New School for Social Research
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Extract

Of all state social provisions, education is among the most important. It also shows the greatest amount of variation among Western industrial nations. England and the United States, countries with many common intellectual and governmental traditions, with longstanding commitments to individualism and democratic forms of government, exhibit great disparity in education. Even today, the United States is by far the leader in the field of mass education while England occupies a position in the bottom ranks.

Type
The Working Class and the Welfare State
Information
International Labor and Working-Class History , Volume 40 , Fall 1991 , pp. 67 - 80
Copyright
Copyright © International Labor and Working-Class History, Inc. 1991

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References

NOTES

An earlier version of this paper was delivered to the Social Science History Association meeting, Washington D. C, November 1989. Thanks to Michael Katz, George Steinmetz, Ira Katznelson, Daniel Marien, Pat Thane, and the participants in the New School for Social Research Proseminar on State Formation and Collective Action for their helpful comments. The census information on Pittsburgh was gathered with the assistance of Jason Ralston.

1. Census 1951. England and Wales: County Report Warwickshire (London, 1954), 56;Google Scholar U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950, vol. 2Google Scholar, Characteristics of the Population. Part 38, Pennsylvania (Washington, 1952), 262Google Scholar.

2. See Heidenheimer, Arnold J., “Education and Social Security Entitlements in Europe and America,” in The Development of Welfare States in Europe and America, ed. Flora, Peter and Heidenheimer, Arnold J. (New Brunswick, 1981), 269–304Google Scholar.

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4. Ibid. See also Elizabeth Beardsley Butler, “Sharpsburg: A Typical Waste of Childhood,” in Ibid., 288–91.

5. See North, Lila Ver Planck, “Pittsburgh Schools,” in The Pittsburgh District, The Pittsburgh Survey, ed. Kellogg, Paul (New York, 1914), 270–80Google Scholar.

6. See Kelley, “Factory Inspection” and Butler, “Sharpsburg”.

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8. See Butler, , “Sharpsburg,” 291, 295–99.Google Scholar

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25. On this see North, “Pittsburgh Schools”. On the age structure of the immigrant population. see U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Thirteenth Census of the Un ited States, 1910, vol. 3, Population table 2 (Washington, 1913), 589;Google Scholar U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, vol. 2, Population table 15 (Washington, 1922), 302–3Google Scholar.

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27. See Klein, ibid.; Ilene DeVault, “ Sons and Daughters of Labor: Class and Clerical Work in Pittsburgh, 1870–1910's ” (Ph.D. Diss., Yale University, 1985), 282–84; Samuel P. Hays, “The Politics of Reform in Municipal Government,” Pacific Northwest Quarterly 55 (October, 1964):160–63.

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35. Ibid., 245, 344.

36. Ibid., 329, 330.

37. Ibid., chap. 7, “An Example of Progress: The Pittsburgh Public Schools.” On the strength of the New Deal reform in Pennsylvania as it affected Pittsburgh, see Michael P. Weber, Don't Call Me Boss: David H. Lawrence, Pittsburgh's Renaissance Mayor (Pittsburgh, 1988), 106–27.

38. Ibid., 336.

39. See DeVault, “Sons and Daughters.”

40. On the lack of availability of clerical jobs to women from southern and eastern Europe prior to the depression, see Cohen, Miriam, From Workshop to Office: Employment, School, and Family in the Lives of New York Italian Women, 1900–1950 (Ithaca, forthcoming), chaps. 5–6Google Scholar. See also Bodnar, John, Simon, Roger, and Weber, Michael, Lives of Their Own: Blacks, Italians, and Poles in Pittsburgh, 1900–1960 (Urbana, 1982), chaps. 8–9Google Scholar.

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42. See U. S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Seventeenth Census of the United States, Population, 1950, vol. 2, Characteristics of the Population, part 38, Pennsylvania, 135.

43. Ibid., 370–75.

44. U. S. Department of Commerce. Bureau of the Census, Sixteenth Census of the United States,1940, Population, vol. 4, Characteristics by Age, part 4, 289–90; U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950, vol. 2, Characteristics of the Population, part 38, Pennsylvania, 285.

45. Not only were there few parochial high schools—five in the entire parish of Allegheny County—they did not offer a curriculum useful to girls preparing for clerical work. See Klein, A Social Study, 102 and chap. 8.

46. Pennington, Shelley and Westover, Belinda, A Hidden Workforce: Homeworkers in England, 1850–1985 (Houndmills, 1989), 102–25Google Scholar.

47. Annual Report to the City of Birmingham, Education Committee of the School Medical Officer (Birmingham, 1919), 22Google Scholar.

48. Allen, G. C., The Industrial Development of Birmingham and the Black Country, 1860–1927 (London, 1929), 340Google Scholar.

49. Census of England and Wales, 1931, Industry Tables (London, 1934), 142–50Google Scholar.

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51. City of Birmingham Education Committee, Juvenile Employment and Welfare Sub-Committee: Twentieth Annual Report, 07 1932 (Birmingham, 1932), 19Google Scholar.

52. Briggs, Asa, History of Birmingham: Borough and City 1865–1938, vol. 2 (London, 1952), 240Google Scholar.

53. Ibid., 241.

54. Morgan, Kenneth O., Labour in Power: 1945–1951 (Oxford, 1985), 179Google Scholar. See also Burgevin, Jules David, “Politics and Education: Case Study of a Pressure Group, the National Association of Labour Teachers, 1927–1951” (Ph.D. diss., Syracuse University, 1969)Google Scholar.

55. Parkinson, Michael, The Labour Party and the Organization of Secondary Education: 1918–65 (London, 1970), 47Google Scholar.

56. Ibid., 347.

57. Anthony Sutcliffe and Smith, Roger, Birmingham 1939–1970, vol. 3 (London, 1974), 338Google Scholar.

58. Ministry of Education, Selected Statistics Relating to Local Education Authorities in England and Wales: Educational Year 1957–58 (London, 1959)Google Scholar.

59. City of Birmingham Central Statistical Office, Abstract of Statistics: 1952–54, no. 3 (Birmingham, 1954), 81Google Scholar.

60. In 1934, 20,828 students attended academic senior high schools in Pittsburgh: 4,405 students attended trade schools that were both junior and senior schools. See Klein, A Social Study, 335.

61. In its 1990 report, the Commission on the Skills of the American Work Force has suggested that while a high-school diploma once “certified the qualities of punctuality, good work habits and the ability to learn on the job, … for many American employers, the four-year college education has become the proxy for these qualities.” See Uchitelle, Louis, “Surplus of College Graduates Dims Job Outlook for Others,” New York Times, June 18, 1990Google Scholar.

62. See U. S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950, vol. 2, Characteristics of Population, part 38. Pennsylvania, 278. The racism in Pittsburgh's schools was even acknowledged in the 1930s: see Klein, A Social Study, 346.

63. See Uchitelle, “Surplus of College Graduates.”