Combining agrarian and industrial livelihood: Rural households in the Saxon Oberlausitz in the nineteenth century

of History at the University of Houston-Clear Lake. She is now studying the dynamics of male and female work roles in rural households in the textile district of the Saxon Oberlausitz and in the garment industry in the urban center of Berlin during the nineteenth century. Abstract: The article examines the various strategies that members of rural house-holds employed in the textile district of the Saxon Oberlausitz during the region’s successful industrial development. The household was sustained by complex com-binations of agricultural and industrial activities. These included home textiles and subsistence farming in the first half of the century and, later on, wage work in the new mechanized mills, the machine and garment industries, and construc-tion. But these workers never gave up their ties to the countryside, residing in rural areas and commuting, if need be, up to two hours for industrial jobs. Main-taining such close ties to agriculture provided subsistence and welfare securit