San Antonio College Library

From the close of the Civil War into the early twentieth century, industrialization swept through America. Huge corporations rose to economic dominance, while millions found themselves dependent upon wages--and severe tensions resulted in frequent clashes. During the Progressive era, the United States Commission on Industrial Relations traversed the country, holding hearings wherein over 700 witness appeared, and researching a range of industries...

"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...

Once a fundamental civic right, strikes are now constrained and contested. In an unusual and thought-provoking history, Josiah Bartlett Lambert shows how the ability to strike was transformed from a fundamental right that made the citizenship of working people possible into a conditional and commercialized function. Arguing that the executive branch, rather than the judicial branch, was initially responsible for the shift in attitudes about the necessity...