(This is the second in a series of posts on eponyms.)
(Warning: There’s rather more to this story than I’m going to try to relate.) In the fall of 1880 in County Mayo, Ireland, Lord Erne granted his tenant farmers a ten percent reduction in their rents because of the poor harvest that had occurred that year. Many of the farmers demanded a higher reduction—25 percent—in their rents, which Lord Erne refused to grant. It was then left to his land agent, Captain Charles Boycott, to evict the farmers who refused (or were unable) to pay the higher amount. In addressing the issue of someone’s coming in to work the land after the former farmer had been evicted, Charles Stewart Panell, an influential member of the Irish Land League, urged the use of “social ostracism,” by shunning the person under all circumstances. This counsel was first applied to the land agent Charles Boycott: none of the local farmers would harvest the crops on Lord Erne’s lands, while local merchants refused to render services to Boycott. Within only days, the verb to boycott was being used locally in relation to ostracizing landlords or land agents. By the end of the decade, it had entered A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (later known as the Oxford English Dictionary). According to the American Heritage Dictionary, the word today has gained the following broader meaning: “To abstain from or act together in abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with as an expression of protest or disfavor or as a means of coercion.” The word has been adopted (and adapted) by many other languages, such as Finnish, French, Dutch, German, Greek, Indonesian, Korean, Polish, Swedish, Tagalog, Turkish, Russian, and related languages. (Check it out.)
The Relative Index does not designate an interdisciplinary number for boycotts, but gives instead the following entries (it should be noted that boycotts do not approximate the whole of any of these classes; if mentioned at all, they are in the including note):
|
Relative Index heading |
DDC number |
Captions |
|
Boycott—Holocaust, 1933–1945 |
940.5318132 |
Holocaust / Economic actions against business and property |
|
Boycott—international politics |
327.117 |
Foreign policy and specific topics in international relations / Use of force and threats of force |
|
Boycott—international politics—law of nations |
341.582 |
Law of nations / Disputes and conflicts between states / Coercive methods of settlement short of war / Sanctions |
|
Boycott—labor economics |
331.893 |
Labor-management bargaining and disputes / Other labor measures (i.e., other than contracts, strikes) |
|
Boycott—labor economics—law |
344.01893 |
Labor law / Labor-management bargaining and disputes / Other labor measures (i.e., other than contracts, strikes) |
|
Boycott—restraint of trade |
338.6048 |
Organization of production / Competition and restraint |
|
Boycott—restraint of trade—law |
343.0723 |
[Economic law] / Regulation of economic activity / Unfair practices / Restraint of trade |
Examples of works on boycotts include:
- International boycotts: Canadian responses, classed in 327.117 Foreign policy and specific topics in international relations / Use of force and threats of force;
- The boycott in American trade unions, classed in 331.893 Labor-management bargaining and disputes / Other labor measures (i.e., other than contracts, strikes);
- The NLRB [National Labor Relations Board] and secondary boycotts, classed in 344.7301893 (built with 344 Labor law, etc., plus T2—73 United States, plus 01 from 344.011–.018 Specific aspects of labor, following instructions at 01–09 Topics of labor law, etc., in the add table under 344.3–.9 Specific jurisdictions and areas, plus 893 from 331.893 Labor-management bargaining and disputes / Other labor measures (i.e., other than contracts, strikes, following instructions at 344.011–.018 Specific aspects of labor); and
- Refusing to cooperate with competitors: A theory of horizontal boycotts, classed in 343.730723 (built with 343 Industry, trade law, etc., plus T2—73 United States, plus 0723 from 343.0723 Restraint of trade, following instructions at 01–09 Topics of industry, trade law, etc., in the add table under 343.3–.9 Specific jurisdictions and areas).
And where should a comprehensive biography on Captain Charles Boycott be classed? The Manual note at T1—092 Biography instructs us to “use the number for the subject of the person’s most noted contribution for the comprehensive biography of the person.” However, it goes on to say, “Class an individual biography in the number most nearly covering the history and civilization of the place and time of the activity emphasized when a work is not clearly associated with any subject but is clearly associated with a place, even in cases when a person’s activity may not approximate the whole of the most specific period.” Captain Boycott is not known for a contribution within a subject area, but is known as a part of the history of Ireland in the late 19th century. The best number for his comprehensive biography therefore is 941.5081092 (built with 941.5081 Ireland, 1800–1899, plus T1–092 Biography). An example of such a biography is Boycott: The life behind the word; the life and times in England and in Ireland and the unusual family background of Charles Cunningham Boycott.
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