The iconic leader of one of America's most powerful unions, Harry Bridges put an indelible stamp on the twentieth century labor movement. Robert Cherny's monumental biography tells the life story of the figure who built the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) into a labor powerhouse that still represents almost 30,000 workers. An ......
Around the world, hundreds of millions of labor migrants endure exploitation, lack of basic rights, and institutionalized discrimination and marginalization. What dynamics and drivers have created a world in which such a huge--and rapidly growing--group toils as marginalized men and women, existing as a lower caste institutionally and juridically? ......
Workers, Nature, and Environmental Conflict in Pacific Northwest Timber
Often cast as villains in the Northwest's environmental battles, timber workers in fact have a connection to the forest that goes far beyond jobs and economic issues. Steven C. Beda explores the complex true story of how and why timber-working communities have concerned themselves with the health and future of the woods surrounding them. Life ......
How Trade Policy and Industrial Decline Transformed America
The decline of the U.S. textile and apparel industries between the 1940s and 1970s helped lay the groundwork for the twenty-first century's potent economic populism in America. James C. Benton looks at how shortsighted trade and economic policy by labor, business, and government undermined an employment sector that once employed millions and ......
Labor's End traces the discourse around automation from its origins in the factory to its wide-ranging implications in political and social life. As Jason Resnikoff shows, the term automation expressed the conviction that industrial progress meant the inevitable abolition of manual labor from industry. But the real substance of the term reflected ......
How Settler Colonial Violence Shaped Antileft Repression
The colonizing wars against Native Americans created the template for anticommunist repression in the United States. Tariq D. Khan's analysis reveals bloodshed and class war as foundational aspects of capitalist domination and vital elements of the nation's long history of internal repression and social control. Khan shows how the state wielded ......
In the aftermath of the Spanish-American War, the United States acquisition of an overseas empire compelled the nation to reconsider the boundary between domestic and foreign--and between nation and empire. William D. Riddell looks at the experiences of merchant sailors and labor organizations to illuminate how domestic class conflict ......
Roustabouts, Animals, and the Work of Putting on the Big Show
From the 1870s to the 1960s, circuses crisscrossed the nation providing entertainment. A unique workforce of human and animal laborers from around the world put on the show. They also formed the backbone of a tented entertainment industry that raised new questions about what constituted work and who counted as a worker. Andrea Ringer examines the ......
A foundational figure in modern labor history, David Montgomery both redefined and reoriented the field. This collection of Montgomery's most important published and unpublished articles and essays draws from the historian's entire five-decade career. Taken together, the writings trace the development of Montgomery's distinct voice and approach ......