Writing the Wrongs: Eva Valesh and the Rise of Labor Journalism

Eva McDonald Valesh was one of the Progressive Era's foremost labor publicists. Challenging the narrow confines placed on women, Valesh became a successful investigative journalist, organizer, and public speaker for labor reform.Valesh was a compatriot of the labor leaders of her day and the "right-hand man" of Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor. Events she covered during her colorful, unconventional reporting career included the Populist revolt, the Cuban crisis of the 1890s, and the 1910 Shirtwaistmakers' uprising. She was described as bright, even "comet-like," by her admirers, but her enemies saw her as "a pest" who took "all the benefit that her sex controls when in argument with a man."Elizabeth Faue examines the pivotal events that transformed this outspoken daughter of a working-class Scots-Irish family into a national political figure, interweaving the study of one woman's fascinating life with insightful analysis of the changing character of American labor reform during the period from 1880 to 1920. In her journey through the worlds of labor, journalism, and politics, Faue lays bare the underside of social reform and reveals how front-line workers in labor's political culture—reporters, investigators, and lecturers—provoked and informed American society by writing about social wrongs. Compelling, insightful, and at times humorous, Writing the Wrongs is a window on the Progressive Era, on social history and the new journalism, and on women's lives and the meanings of class and gender.

About the Author :
Elizabeth Faue is Professor of History at Wayne State University and the author of Community of Suffering and Struggle: Women, Men, and the Labor Movement in Minneapolis, 1915-1945.

Review :
Eva Valesh slipped into historical obscurity in part because she left no significant body of private papers and because much of her public writing was unsigned. Through dogged research to uncover the scattered remaining sources, Elizabeth Faue recaptures this important figure and seeks to draw larger meanings from her life and career about class and gender politics of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. - Elizabeth Fones-Wolf, West Virginia University (The Journal of American History) Faue helps us understand Valesh's iconoclastic career in the context of the masculine worlds of journalism, politics, and labor reform, which offered women such limited and difficult choices. Moreover, she provides an excellent overview of the issues facing labor and American society during a crucial time. - K. Fones-Wolf, West Virginia University (Choice) Elizabeth Faue has told a remarkable story, one with implications that extend well beyond Eva Valesh. Eva Valesh's remarkable story shows what is possible in a society open to talent. But her life also shows the compromises that may be demanded of even a remarkably talented child of the working class. - Gerald Friedman, UMass-Amherst (EH.NET) Like a 19th century Barbara Ehrenreich, Valesh was hired by the St. Paul Globe to do undercover reporting on working women who were the 'Nickel and Dimed' of her time. The series was published under the pen name of 'Eva Gay,' when Valesh was only 22, and 'introduced readers to the lives of garment workers, laundresses, cigar-makers, seamstresses, domestics, operatives in woolen knitting mills and boot and shoe factories, telephone and telegraph operators, bookbinders, stenographers, and shop women.' Her accounts helped spark the interest of labor advocates and middle-class reformers, stressing that 'the appalling conditions under which most women workers were amenable to change'—if the 'working girls' themselves took action on their own behalf. - Steve Early (The Guild Reporter) This book is an excellent model for the scholar trying to balance nutrient-rich research with an engaging writing style. It also is an excellent model for the scholar linking a particular journalist to a specific historic moment or movement. And, by the way, it is an absolutely fascinating read and a stellar contribution to the field of labor journalism.... Faue has effectively reclaimed the story of a forgotten journalist and, in doing so, has contributed significantly once again to the field of labor journalism.... Faue deserves a hearty salute. - Cheryl Heckler, Miami University (Journalism History)