Labor and Power in the Late Ottoman Empire: Tobacco Workers, Managers, and the State, 1872–1912

Description

By the early twentieth century, consumers around the world had developed a taste for Ottoman-grown tobacco. Employing tens of thousands of workers, the Ottoman tobacco industry flourished in the decades between the 1870s to the First Balkan War—and it became the locus of many of the most active labor struggles across the empire. Can Nacar delves into the lives of these workers and their fight for better working conditions. Full of insight into the changing relations of power between capital and labor in the Ottoman Empire and the role played by state actors in these relations, this book also draws on a rich array of primary sources to foreground the voices of tobacco workers themselves. Front Matter ....Pages i-xv Introduction (Can Nacar)....Pages 1-14 The Ottoman Tobacco Industry: Enterpreneurs and Workers (Can Nacar)....Pages 15-45 Worked All Their Lives in Tobacco: Life Inside the Factory and Warehouse Walls (Can Nacar)....Pages 47-78 ‘Ignorance’ in Action: Labor Protests in the Hamidian Period (Can Nacar)....Pages 79-106 Long Live the Workers: The Revolutionary Euphoria of 1908 (Can Nacar)....Pages 107-134 After the Euphoria: New Possibilities and Challenges (Can Nacar)....Pages 135-168 Conclusion (Can Nacar)....Pages 169-177 Back Matter ....Pages 179-202