ABSTRACT
The concept of alienation is frequently used by social historians dealing with work and the working class, particularly in the modern period. The word means hostility or estrangement from some activity or experience. Karl Marx, in Capital, applied the term particularly to the work processes of industrial capitalism. Because workers no longer owned any producing property and because their formal training often declined, Marx argued that they were alienated from the products of their work, feeling no real stake in the manufacturing process. His claim made good theoretical sense, though historians and social scientists have had problems finding actual clear measures of alienation. Do alienated workers lead in labor protest, because of their estrangement? Or is the disorientation so great that protest goals cannot be found-meaning that alienated workers are less likely to strike or join unions than workers who find some partial meaning in their jobs? Though many labor historians refer to alienation, most social histories have found working-class groups rather divided in their degree of estrangement, with many able to make some partial accommodations.
