New Books Network Mattie Armstrong-Price, "Respectability on the Line: Gender, Race, and Labor along British and Colonial Indian Railways" (U California Press, 2026)
Mar 7, 2026
Mattie Armstrong-Price, assistant professor at Fordham University and author of Respectability on the Line, explores railway labor in Britain and colonial India. She traces managers crafting ‘respectability,’ company towns and surprising bachelor subcultures. Discussions cover racial and grade-based hierarchies, early union formation, benefit funds, strikes, and how everyday life shaped labor politics.
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Respectability Meant Politeness And Domestic Stability
- Respectability combined comportment and domestic stability, with managers policing politeness, sobriety, and breadwinner gender roles among railway workers.
- Companies enforced uniforms, banned drinking on duty, and promoted stable family homes to calm passengers and stabilize workforces.
Railway Companies Built Whole Towns For Workers
- Company towns like Swindon and Jamalpur offered company housing, mechanics institutes, bathhouses, libraries, and hospitals to shape workers' everyday lives.
- Jamalpur included theaters, classes, and subsidized food, creating a near-self-contained life for employees.
Paternalism Produced Bachelor Subcultures
- Paternalistic interventions produced unintended bachelor subcultures where single men formed close domestic-like bonds instead of nuclear families.
- Evidence includes census records, Swindon bachelor balls, a bachelor cricket team, and a Jamalpur scrapbook showing intimate male friendships.
