Readings in Labor History

This seminar traces major historical trends, transformations, events, and eras that have shaped labor and the lives of workers, mostly in the United States but also around the world. With some prefatory readings about the 18th and 19th centuries, this seminar will concentrate on the 20th and 21st centuries and examine different sectors of work and the varied laboring lives of individuals and communities. Topics covered include labor during Reconstruction; the racialization and feminization of labor; industrial factory work; agribusiness’s power and the food industry; union formation and campaigns; workplace traumas and tragedies; citizen-migrant tensions and solidarities; globalization and outsourcing; sex, tech, and gig work; and how cultural changes and political schisms affect attitudes in the working and middle classes.