American Labor

Melvyn Dubofsky is Bartle Distinguished Professor of History & Sociology at Binghamton University, State University of New York, USA. He is author of numerous books and essays in history including The State and Labor in Modern America and Hard Work: The Making of Labor History. Joseph A. McCartin is Associate Professor of History in the Department of History at Georgetown University, USA. He is the author of Labor's Great War: The Struggle for Industrial Democracy and the Origins of Modern American Labor Relations, 1912-21 and editor of We Shall Be All: A History of the Industrial Workers of the World.

'American Labor: A Documentary History is an outstanding collection of materials drawn from a wide variety of sources. Responsive to the themes of gender and ethnicity that have characterized much recent scholarship, this collection by two leading labor historians does not neglect more traditional themes of union organizing, collective bargaining, and government-labor relations. The editors' introductory commentaries provide clearly rendered context for the well-chosen selections that form the heart of this book. While American Labor: A Documentary History is sure to find wide use in classes, it also provides a rich trove of primary material for general readers, much of it in the form of poignant and moving personal testimony from workers of diverse backgrounds.' - Robert H. Zieger, Distinguished Professor of History, University of Florida 'At long last we now have a reliable, comprehensive, and accessible volume of documents on the history of American labor from two of the most respected labor historians in the academy. This volume actually does justice to the very diverse field that is labor history today: no small accomplishment!' - Eric Arnesen, University of Illinois at Chicago and author of Brotherhoods of Color: Black Railroad Workers and the Struggle for Equality 'A rich trove of primary material .. much of it in the form of poignant and moving personal testimony from workers of diverse backgrounds.' - Robert H Zieger, University of Florida, USA

• Introduction Acknowledgments Labor in the Colonial and Early National Periods, to 1828 The Rise of Free Labor, the Factory System, and Trades Organization, 1828-1877 Workers in a Maturing an Industrial Society, 1877-1914 Wars, Depression, and the Struggle for Industrial Democracy, 1912-1947 The Era of the Postwar Social Contract, 1947-1973 Era of Economic Change and Union Decline, Since 1973