Bread and Roses, Too / Katherine Paterson / 275 pages / Twentieth Century Fiction Challenge

This is an inspiring, informative story of the Lawrence, Massachusetts strike against the American Woolen Company.  Rosa is a good student, who recognizes that education is the key to success, but after her fathers dies in the mill, the rest of the family is compelled to work to replace his income.  Conditions in the mills are deplorable, unhealthy, and unjust.  Workers spend over fifty-six hours in the mills each week.  When the owners decide to short the paychecks but not the time, many workers walk out.  Harvard students are brought in and armed to discourage participation in the strike.  Rosa and Jake, a ne'er do well whose drunken father beats him, are sent to live with a sponsor family far from strike-torn Lawrence.  Jake has falsified his information to escape...  Although the sponsor's reaction to Jake's thievery is a bit unbelievable, it is most welcome.  This story brings to light a little-studied aspect of America's Industrial Revolution.