Chapter 1 explores the various factors that shaped Carlson’s identity as a working-class Catholic young woman who was committed to social justice. These included her natal family and childhood neighborhood, her local parish, her women religious teachers, and the impact of World War I and the 1922 shopmen’s strike. Through her experience of World War I, as a working-class Irish and German girl, she had come to question government authority and the 100 percent Americanism that vigilante groups imposed on the community in St. Paul. As a result of her father’s experiences during the shopmen’s strike, she deepened her understanding of the importance of worker solidarity. And Grace came to appreciate early on the importance of education for the development of her autonomy. It was not only her mother, Mary Holmes, who instilled that lesson but also her women religious instructors in high school. The Josephites reinforced the value Grace placed on higher education as a route to economic independence for women and set her feet on the road to a professional career.
