This study analyzes in close detail the experiences of glassworkers as mechanization transformed their trade from a highly skilled art to a semiskilled occupation. Ms. Scott argues that changes in the organization of work altered the life style and political outlook of glassworkers. These changes also created a new identity for them as residents of Carmaux, a city in the Department of the tarn in southwestern France. Once an isolated group of itinerant workers within the city, glassworkers became active trade unionists and militant socialists in the 1890s.