San Antonio College Library

"Union-Free America: Workers and Antiunion Culture confronts one of the most vexing questions with which labor activists and labor academics struggle: why is there so much opposition to organized labor in the United States? Scholars often point to powerful obstacles from employers or governmental policies, but Lawrence Richards offers a more complete picture of the causes for union decline in the postwar period by examining the attitudes of the workers...

Wage stagnation, low-wage work, and blighted blue-collar communities have become an all-too-common part of modern-day America. Behind these trends is a little-discussed problem: the decades-long decline in worker power. Greenhouse rebuts the often-stated view that labor unions are outmoded or harmful, by recounting some of labor's victories, and the efforts of several of today's most innovative and successful worker groups. He also proposes concrete,...

This book is a history of American labor from the dawn of the industrial age to the present day. From the textile mills of Lowell, Massachusetts, the first real factories in America, to the triumph of unions in the twentieth-century and their waning influence today, the contest between labor and capital for their share of American bounty has shaped our national experience. Here the author's ambition is to show the vital accomplishments of organized...

"Over one hundred annotated primary documents present compelling and informative snapshots of the shifting and often contentious role played by workers and organized labor in American politics, economics, and history. Shaped by wars, depressions, government policies, judicial rulings, and global competition, the history of worker's rights and labor relations often offers a grim picture of the pursuit of the American Dream. A narrative overview of...

In this, the first broad historical overview of labor in the United States in twenty years, Philip Nicholson examines anew the questions, the villains, the heroes, and the broad social and cultural issues that relate to work in America. Unlike recent books that have covered labor in the twentieth century, Labor's Story in the United States looks at the landscape of labor from the earliest colonial times to the present. In clear, unpretentious language,...

Alphabetically-arranged entries cover the people, events, organizations, and court cases that have influenced the organization of American labor. Also pinpoints major labor issues like children in the workplace, the eight-hour working day, job safety, minimum wages, and others.

This book examines the various economic, social, and political developments that shaped labor history in the United States from World War I until the present day. It presents an overview of labor history that also considers women workers, ethnic America, and post-World War II workers, while incorporating the most recent scholarship in labor history.

In this illuminating survey of American labor from the 1820s to the present, Daniel Nelson looks for the reasons why union activity has ebbed and flowed since the onset of the Industrial Revolution. Rather than simply summarizing other people's books, Mr. Nelson offers an original and provocative view of the union experience in America.