The Cruel Years: American Voices At The Dawn Of The Twentieth Century

"Hearing the words of these people is a requirement for a truly democratic society."
--from the Preface by Howard Zinn
What was life like for a working person one hundred years ago? The Cruel Years offers readers a poignant and candid glimpse of the turmoil, oppression, and injustice of life in the early 1900s told by twenty-two working
women and men who, through their short narratives, reveal the resiliency of their lives in the face of unimaginable horrors.
Written in the actual words of these working people, the narratives take us back one hundred years with vivid accounts of the struggle to survive among the poor and powerless: a young woman fights for better working conditions,
a native American tries to preserve his identity against incredible odds, a coal miner warns of lethal dangers, a sweatshop girl tries to enjoy life, a hungarian immigrant in the South rages at his economic and cultural enslavement.
"Katz and Lehman have not only assembled a powerful teaching tool for the study of the turn of the last century, but they have also reminded us just how easy it is to erase stories of the oppressed and exploited."
--Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams and Yo' Mama's Disfunktional
William Loren Katz is an award-winning author and historian. He is the author of over forty titles, including the internationally acclaimed The Black West. Laurie R. Lehman, associate professor of education at Long Island University, has written extensively on culture and disability in U.S. education. They live in
New York City.