Major Problems in the History of American Workers: Documents and Essays

Front Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
Preface
1 The Meaning of Work and the History of Labor
Essays
Harvey Swados | The Myth of the Happy Worker
Barbara Ehrenreich | Working Poor Blues
Further Reading
2 The Labor Systems of Early America
Documents
1. An Indentured Servant Writes Home, 1623
2. "The Trappan'd Maiden: Or the Distressed Damsel," (Popular Song, mid-1600s)
3. Traveler Peter Kalm on Unfree Labor in Pennsylvania, 1753
4. African Prince Olaudah Equiano Survives the Middle Passage, 1791
5. Ruth Belknap, a Country Parson's Wife, on "The Pleasures of a Country Life," c. 1782
6. Eulalia Pérez Remembers Early California, 1823
7. Report on the Indian Villages of San Diego County, 1873
Essays
Richard S. Dunn | Servants and Slaves in the East
Howard Lamar | Bonded and Contract Labor in the Southwest
Further Reading
3 From the Artisan's Republic to the Factory System
Documents
1. David Johnson Remembers Apprenticeship Life in the Artisan Shoe Shop, 1830
2. Jessie Hutchinson, "Cordwainers' Rallying Song," 1844
3. A Reporter's Account of Lynn Women's Mass Meeting During the Great Strike, 1860
4. Amelia, a Woman Worker, Protests Lowell Wage Slavery, 1845
5. Journeymen Tailors Protest Wage Slavery, 1836
6. Frederick Douglass Confronts Working-Class Racism, 1836
Essays
Alan Dawley | Lynn Shoemakers and the Solidarity of Class
David R. Roediger | White Artisans and the Solidarity of Race
Further Reading
4 Slavery and the Transition to Free Labor
Documents
1. Slave Production at Pleasant Hill Plantation, 1850
2. Slave Solomon Northrup's View of Cotton Planting and Harvesting, 1854
3. A Plater on Child Rearing, 1836
4. A Northern Unionist Lectures Ex-Slaves on the Work Ethic, 1865
5. "We Demand Land": Petition by Southern Freedmen, 1865
6. African-American Washerwomen Demand Higher Wages, 1866
7. "Colored" vs. Chinese in Galveston, 1877
8. Sharecropper Nate Shaw Makes His Crop, 1913
Essays
Eugene Genovese | The Plantation Work Ethic
Eric Foner | Emancipation and the Reconstruction of Southern Labor
Further Reading
5 The Age of Industrial Conflict
Documents
1. Haymarket Anarchist Michael Schwab Fights for Freedom, 1886
2. "Freedom," Poem by Haymarket Anarchist Albert R. Parsons, 1886
3. "Labor's Great Army," 1889
4. Samuel Gompers Defends the Right to Strike, 1899
5. Preamble of the Industrial Workers of the World, 1905
6. Fitz John Porter Explains How to Quell Mobs, 1885
7. George Pullman Defends Managerial Paternalism, 1894
Essays
Jeremy Brecher | The Great Upheaval
James Green | Remembering Haymarket: Chicago's Labor Martyrs and Their Legacy
Further Reading
6 From Peasant to Proletarian
Documents
1. Economist John R. Commons Denounces the "Sweating System," 1901
2. Investigator John Fitch Describes Steel's Long Shift, 1912
3. Photographer Lewis Hine Depicts Child Laborers in the New York City Tenements, 1911
4. African Americans Seek Work in the North, 1917
5. Helen B. Sayre Praises the Progress of Negro Women in Industry, 1924
6. California Employers Evaluate Foreign Beet Workers, 1911
7. "Chinaman, Laundryman" Poet H. T. Tsiang Defends Chinese Immigrants, 1929
Essays
Herbert Gutman | The Cultures of First-Generation
Industrial Workers
Ronald Takaki | Asian Immigrants Raising Cane: The World of Plantation Hawaii
Further Reading
7 Cultures of the Workplace
Documents
1. Miner John Brophy Learns His Trade, 1907
2. A Student's View of "Soldiering," 1931
3. Frederick Winslow Taylor Explains the Principles of Scientific Management, 1916
4. An A.F.L. View of Women Workers in Industry, 1897
5. The Shirtwaist Strikers Win, 1910
6. Unionist Alice Henry Outlines Why Women Need Their Own Local Unions, 1915
Essays
David Montgomery | Work Rules and Manliness in the World of the Nineteen-Century Craftsman
Nan Enstad | French Heels and Ladyhood in the World of Early-Twentieth-Century Garment Strikers
Further Reading
Photograph Essay: Americans at Work in the Industrial Era
8 Labor and the State During the Progressive Era
Documents
1. In re Debs, 1895
2. Muller v. Oregon, 1908
3. Adkins v. Children's Hospital, 1923
4. The American Federation of Labor Embraces Equal Pay for Equal Work, 1917
5. Industrial Democracy Needed for the War Effort, 1917
6. President Woodrow Wilson on the Labor Question, 1919
Essays
Alice Kessler-Harris | Law and Free Labor
Joseph A. McCartin | Fighting for Industrial Democracy in World War I
Further Reading
9 Industrial Unionism During the Great Depression
Documents
1. Preamble of the National Labor Relations Act, 1935
2. Communist John Steuben Organizes Steel, 1936
3. Mrs. Violet Baggett Joins the Union, 1937
4. White-Collar Workers Organize, 1938
5. A Union Man Gets His Job Back, 1938
6. Stanley Nowak Organizes a Slowdown Strike, 1937
7. For UAW Shop Stewards: "How to Win for the Union," 1941
8. Union Leaders Oppose Shop-Floor Agitators, 1941
Essays
Melvyn Dubofsky | Not So Radical Years: Another Look at the 1930s
Bruce Nelson | Radical Years: Working-Class Consciousness on the Waterfront in the 1930s
Further Reading
10 Race, Gender, and Industrial Unionism: World War II and Its Aftermath
Documents
1. President Franklin D. Roosevelt Establishes a Committee on Fair Employment Practice, 1941
2. Mildred Keith Protests Discrimination, 1942
3. The War Labor Board Assails Workplace Racism, 1943
4. The War Labor Board Orders Equal Pay for Equal Work, 1944
5. The Crisis Predicts a Surge in NAACP Membership, 1943
6. Women's Work in a California Warplane Factory, 1941-1945
Essays
Robert Korstad and Nelson Lichtenstein | How Organized Black Workers Brought Civil Rights to the South
Eileen Boris | Racialized Bodies on the Homefront
Further Reading
11 Trade Unions in the Postwar Years
Documents
1. The CIO Attacks a Communist-Led Union, 1949
2. Betty Friedan Argues for Trade Union Feminism, 1952
3. Arbitrator Harry Shulman Upholds the Authority of Ford Supervision, 1944
4. Shop Steward B.J. Widick Outlines the Frustrations of the Contract System, 1954
5. Fortune Magazine Applauds the U.S. Labor Movement, 1951
Essays
Ellen Schrecker | Labor Encounters the Anticommunist Crusade
Nelson Lichtenstein | The Union's Retreat in the Postwar Era
Further Reading
12 Rights-Conscious Unionism in the Public Sector
Documents
1. The American Federation of Teachers on the Rights of Teachers, 1951
2. The March on Washington Demands Jobs and Freedom, 1963
3. Union Leader Taylor Rogers Relives the Memphis Sanitation Strike (1968), 2000
4. Cesar E. Chavez, Good Friday Message, 1969
Essays
Marjorie Murphy | Collective Bargaining: The Coming of Age
of Teacher Unionism
Michael Honey | Martin Luther King Jr. and the Memphis Sanitation Strike
Further Reading
13 White Collars, Pink Collars, and Hardhats
Documents
1. Sociologist Daniel Bell's "Post-Industrial" Vision, 1973
2. Fred Roman on the Life of an Accountant, 1972
3. Lee Radler Archacki Explains Why She Chose the Night Shift, 1979
4. Computerized Order Taking at McDonald's, 1988
5. Sex Discrimination in the Skies, 1967
6. The Scandal Behind Soaring Construction Costs, 1972
Essays
Joshua Freedman | Construction Workers Defend Their Manhood
Dorothy Sue Cobble | Feminism Transforms Women Service Workers
Further Reading
14 Mobile Capital, Migrating Workers
Documents
1. Management's Weapon: Scab Labor, 1990
2. A Unionist Blasts Overseas Office Work, 1987
3. Temp Blues, 1994
4. Sweatshop Workers Speak Out, 1998
5. The AFL-CIO Defends Immigrant Workers, 2000
6. The Battle in Seattle, 1999
7. Senseless in Seattle, 1999
Essays
Kim Moody | A Certain Kind of Globalization
Andrew Ross | Sweated Labor in Cyberspace
Grace Chang | The Nanny Visa
Further Reading
15 New Labor, New Century
Documents
1. John Sweeney's Victory Speech Before the AFL-CIO, 1995
2. Harvard Union Clerical and Technical Workers State Their Principles, 1988
3. Queremos Justicia! We Want Justice! 1996
4. Big Win at UPS! 1997
5. Republican Kellyanne Fitzpatrick Promotes California's Proposition 226 as "Paycheck Protection," 1998
Essays
Harold Meyerson | A New AFL-CIO
Robin D.G. Kelley | How the New Working Class Can Transform Urban America
Gordon Lafer | Graduate Student Unions Fight the Corporate University
Appendix: American Labor; A Statistical Portrait
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