NOTE: Includes a broad selection of historical and cultural documents plus the novella

This definitive edition reprints the text of Rebecca Harding Davis Life in the Iron Mills together with a broad selection of historical and cultural documents that open up the novella to the consideration of a range of social and cultural issues vital to Davis' nineteenth century. A general introduction providing historical and cultural background, a chronology of Davis' life and times, an introduction to each thematic group of documents, headnotes, extensive annotations, a generous selection of illustrations, and a selected bibliography make this volume the definitive scholarly text of this classic work of industrial fiction.

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Life in the iron-mills: the complete text --
Introduction: cultural and historical background --
A note on the text --
Life in the iron-mills (1861 Atlantic Monthly edition) --
Life in the iron-mills: cultural context --
Work and class --
The village blacksmith / Henry Wadsworth Longfellow --
That aristocracy may be engendered by manufactures / Alexis de Tocqueville --
Iron interests of wheeling / A.W. Campbell --
Senate testimony from iron foundry proprietor / John Roach --
In Soho on Saturday night (song) / Anonymous --
Perils- immigration / Josiah Strong --
The Anglo-Saxon and the world's future / Josiah Strong --
Senate testimony on the kitchen garden movement / Anna Gordon --
Ten nights in a bar-room (excerpt) / T.S. Arthur --
The Quaker of the olden time / John Greenleaf Whittier --
The Quaker settlement (from uncle tom's cabin) / Harriet Beecher Stowe --
Looking Backward: 2000-1887 (excerpt) / Edward Bellamy --
Art and artists --
An inquiry into the art-conditions and prospects of America / James Jackson Jarves --
Art thoughts (excerpt) / James Jackson Jarves --
Hints to American artists / Anonymous --
Conversations in a studio (excerpt)William Wetmore Story --
The Stewart art gallery / Anonymous --
The process of sculpture / Anonymous --
The Greek slave / Anonymous --
A sculptor's studio (from the marble faun) / Nathaniel Hawthorne --
Roderick Hudson (excerpt) / Henry James --
/ Senate testimony on the arts and art education in the United States / Wilson McDonald --
Senate testimony on industrial art schools for women / Florence Elizabeth Cory --
Women and writing: the public platform --
Letter to George D. Ticknor / Nathaniel Hawthorne --
The great lawsuit (excerpt) / Margaret Fuller --
St. Elmo (excerpt) / Augusta Evans Wilson --
Literary women / Caroline Kirkland --
Ruth Hall (excerpt) / Fanny Fern --
A New England girlhood (excerpt) / Lucy Larcom --
Little Women (excerpt) / Louisa May Alcott --
Life and letters of Harriet Beecher Stowe (excerpt) / Annie Fields.