Labor History Books

New and Published Books

1. Empire, Industry and Class

   The Imperial Nexus of Jute, 1840-1940

   By Anthony Cox

   Series: Routledge/Edinburgh South Asian Studies Series

   Presenting a new approach towards the social history of working classes in the imperial context, this book looks at the formation of working classes in Scotland and Bengal. It analyses the trajectory of labour market formation, labour supervision, cultures of labour and class formation between two...

   Published December 17th 2012 by Routledge
2. Women, Work, and Protest

   A Century of U.S. Women's Labor History

   Edited by Ruth Milkman

   Series: Routledge Library Editions: Women's History

   As paid work becomes increasingly central in women’s lives, the history of their labor struggles assumes more and more importance. This volume represents the best of the new feminist scholarship in twentieth-century U.S. women’s labor history. Fourteen original essays illuminate the complex...

   Published October 9th 2012 by Routledge
3. Fit Work for Women

   Edited by Sandra Burman

   Series: Routledge Library Editions: Women's History

   This book presents a collection of papers which discuss the origins of the domestic ideal and its effects on activities usually undertaken by women: not only on women’s wage work, but also on activities either not defined as work or accorded an ambiguous status. It discusses the formation of the...

   Published October 9th 2012 by Routledge
4. Give Us Bread but Give Us Roses

   Working Women's Consciousness in the United States, 1890 to the First World War

   By Sarah Eisenstein

   Series: Routledge Library Editions: Women's History

   Rooted in the printed sources of the period, this book reconstructs the attitudes of a pioneer generation of young women to the conflicts brought about by their new experience of employment outside their homes, and to changes in work and family relationships. In the 1890s and after the still...

   Published October 9th 2012 by Routledge
5. Woody Guthrie

   Writing America's Songs

   By Ronald Cohen

   Series: Routledge Historical Americans

   Woody Guthrie is the most famous and influential folk music composer and performer in the history of the United States. His most popular song, "This Land is Your Land" has become the country's unofficial national anthem, known to every school child since the 1960s. His influence exceeded the realm...

   Published July 2nd 2012 by Routledge
6. Red Activists and Black Freedom

   James and Esther Jackson and the Long Civil Rights Revolution

   Edited by David Levering Lewis, Michael H. Nash, Daniel J. Leab

   This book deals with the forgotten history of the civil rights movement. The American Left played a significant part in the origins of that movement, whose history has traditionally been focused on the later 1940's and early 1950's. This approach needs serious re-thinking in light of what took...

   Published May 29th 2012 by Routledge
7. Labor, Industry, and Regulation during the Progressive Era

   By Daniel E. Saros

   Series: New Political Economy

   The Progressive Era was among the most volatile times for the economy and labor in American History. Daniel E. Saros explores the institutional and economic conditions of this time, revealing new insight into the regulated nature of industry and the conditions of labor. Using the steel industry as...

   Published February 22nd 2012 by Routledge
8. Heritage, Labour and the Working Classes

   Edited by Laurajane Smith, Paul Shackel, Gary Campbell

   Series: Key Issues in Cultural Heritage

   Heritage, Labour and the Working Classes is both a celebration and commemoration of working class culture. It contains sometimes inspiring accounts of working class communities and people telling their own stories, and weaves together examples of tangible and intangible heritage, place, history,...

   Published June 26th 2011 by Routledge
9. German Immigration and Servitude in America, 1709-1920

   By Farley Grubb

   Series: Routledge Explorations in Economic History

   This book provides the most comprehensive history of German migration to North America for the period 1709 to 1920 than has been done before. Employing state-of-the-art methodological and statistical techniques, the book has two objectives. First he explores how the recruitment and shipping...

   Published June 22nd 2011 by Routledge
10. Work and Struggle

    Voices from U.S. Labor Radicalism

    Edited by Paul Le Blanc

    Work and Struggle: Voices from U.S. Labor Radicalism focuses on the history of U.S. labor with an emphasis on radical currents, which have been essential elements in the working-class movement from the mid nineteenth century to the late twentieth century. Showcasing some of labor's most important...

    Published December 7th 2010 by Routledge