SUNY Cortland
Department of History
Issues in U.S. Labor and Working Class History:
A Graduate Readings Seminar
Fall 2007
Instructor: Randi Storch
Office: 210D Old Main
Phone: 753-2054
E-Mail: [email protected]
Office Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays 1:00-3:00 and Wednesdays 3:00-4:00
and by appointment
Web Page: web.cortland.edu/storchr
Course Description: This readings course is to introduce graduate
students to the rich history of American labor and working class
history, which is broadly defined as the historical experience of
wage-earning people. It focuses on their daily lives as well as
on the relationship between these more mundane experiences and broader
economic, political, and cultural change in American society during the
era from the end of the nineteenth century through the late twentieth.
This course will also serve as an introduction to an approach to the
study of American history and a to a different perspective (from the
bottom up) on familiar periods and problems. Although we will
proceed chronologically, this course is not meant to be a survey but
rather to highlight historiographic and thematic dimensions of the
field.
Course Objectives: Through readings, writings and class discussion,
students will be able to:
1. Identify key themes and questions in the study of
the American working class.
2. Analyze a variety of methodologies in approaching
the historical study of class.
3. Understand how the problems of working-class
formation and fragmentation affect individuals within a multi-racial,
multi-ethnic, and gendered working-class population
4. Apply fundamental concepts and approaches to
distinct periods in American working class history
5. Write an historiographical essay, which surveys
and critically assesses the existing literature on a given topic or
problem in working-class history.
Assignments:
In addition to completing the required reading and participating
actively in weekly discussions, each student will be expected to write
two précis, present them in class, and submit a written version
of them to fellow students. Students will also write weekly critical
reviews that will be collected at the instructor’s discretion and an
historiographical essay.
Precis (20% of Grade): A précis is a short review of an
article’s content, including the author’s questions, thesis, supporting
evidence, sources and findings. Each of you will be required to write
one précis (one page, single-spaced, typed) on the articles
listed as “class reports” on the syllabus. You will make copies
of the précis for each member of the class and the instructor.
You will come to class on the day indicated prepared to speak for five
minutes or so about the article you have summarized. Ideally you will
not read straight from your paper but will prepare an engaging
presentation of the author’s major contribution for the class. These
presentations will serve to introduce into the discussion materials,
which other members of the seminar have not had the opportunity to
read. Thus presentations should be as clear and thorough as possible.
Historiographical Essay (35% of Grade): This assignment asks you to
survey and assess critically the existing literature on a given topic
or problem in labor and working class history. Students should define
their topics fairly broadly—e.g. gender, race, radicalism, coal miners,
packinghouse workers, domestic service etc. –and then compile a
bibliography of relevant books and articles. Essays should outline
stages or phases of interpretations, identifying distinctive schools of
thought or intellectual trends, and point out convergences and
disagreements among historians. Essays need not summarize every book or
article, but rather should show how each study fits into the broad
categories that have been defined. Finally, each essay should identify
questions that arise and areas of research that remain. Essays should
be 12-15 pages and incorporate at least 10 books and articles. Your
topic and a tentative bibliography are due to me in class on October
10th. Students should plan to meet with me to prior to October 10th to
discuss their essay topics.
Weekly Critical Reviews (30% of Grade): Each week you will write
a one to two page, typed critical synthesis of the readings. Rather
than simply summarizing each book and/or article, you will think about
how they relate to the broader topic they are listed under. Questions
to consider include: What questions does the authors ask? How
successful was the author in his/her own terms in answering them? Was
the data sufficient to support the arguments? What sources were used?
Did the material suggest other conclusions that the author failed to
draw? How do the readings relate to others we’ve read for the week and
semester? Do they contradict or revise previous studies, or simply
confirm them? Do they suggest a broad new framework? What questions are
unanswered? What new avenues of research do they point to? This
assignment is intended to push you to process the reading materials
before coming to class and to raise our discussion to a higher level.
On four days throughout the semester, I’ve suggested big questions that
tie the required readings with bigger questions in the field I will
expect that your reviews will deal with these issues. I will collect
these randomly throughout the semester.
Course Participation will make up the final 15% of your grade.
Required Readings:
Eric Arnesen ed., The Black Worker: A Reader
Labor: Studies in Working-Class History of the Americas v.3, n.3 (Fall
2006)
William Forbath, Law and the Shaping of the American Labor Movement
Lizabeth Cohen, The Making of the New Deal
Randi Storch, Red Chicago
Jefferson Cowie, Capital Moves
Articles will be distributed in class.
Class Sessions, Discussion Topics, and Reading Assignments:
August 29 Class Organization and Overview
What is historiography? What is labor history?
September 5 Old Labor History/New Labor History
Required Readings:
Selig Perlman, A History of Trade Unionism in the United States (1922),
chapters 12-15 (265-306).
John Commons, ch.1 in History of Labor in the United States, v.2, 1966,
195-202 and 395-429.
Herbert Gutman, introduction and chapter one, Work, Culture, and
Society in Industrializing America, (1976), xi-78.
David Brody, “The Old Labor History and the New: In Search of An
American Working Class,” Labor History (1979) 20,1: 111-126.
Class Reports:
Selig Perlman and Philip Taft, History of Labor in the United States,
1896-1932, v.4, 1966, chapter one 3-12.
Kim Voss, The Making of American Exceptionalism, (1993), Introduction
and Conclusion.
September 12 Class Formation: Community Studies and
Challenges to American Exceptionalism
Required Readings:
Sean Wilentz, “Against Exceptionalism: Class Consciousness and the
American Labor Movement, 1790-1920,” International Labor and
Working-Class History 1984 (26): 1-24.
Howard Kimeldorf, “Bringing Unions Back in (or Why we need a New Old
Labor History),” Comments, and Reply in Labor History 1991 32(1):
91-129.
Melvyn Dubofsky, “Lost in a Fog: Labor Historians’ Unrequited Search
for a Synthesis,” Labor History (1991) 32, 2: 295-300.
James Barrett, “The Families and Communities of Packingtown,
1894-1922,” in Work and Community in the Jungle (1987), 64-117.
Tobias Higbie, “Reassessing the ‘Floating Laborer’: The Social
Geography of Work and Community in the Upper Midwest” in Indispensable
Outcasts: Hobo Workers and Community in the American Midwest, 1880-1930
Class Reports:
James R. Barrett, “Unity and Fragmentation: Class, Race, and Ethnicity
on Chicago’s South Side,” Journal of Social History 1984 18(1): 37-55.
Aristide Zolberg, “How Many Exceptionalisms?” In Katznelson and Zolberg
eds. Working-Class Formation, 397-456.
Eric Foner, “Why is there no Socialism in the US?” History Workshop 17
(Spring 1984): 57-80.
Big Questions: How does the “new” labor history differ from the “old”
labor history? To what extent have ideas about American exceptionalism
affected both “old and “new” labor history? And finally, why are so
many labor historians concerned about the future of labor history? Will
a new “synthesis” solve the supposed fragmentation of the field?
September 19 Bringing the State In To Labor History
Required Reading:
William Forbath, Law and the Shaping of the American Labor Movement
September 26
Spend the week researching a paper topic and getting a bibliography
together
October 3 Rethinking Big Labor and the New Deal
Required Reading:
Lizabeth Cohen, Making a New Deal
Class Reports:
Symposium on Liz Cohen’s Making a New Deal in LH 17 (1991): 562-597.
Melvyn Dubofsky, “’Not So Turbulent Years’: another Look at the
American 1930s,” American Studies 24 (1979): 5-20.
Bruce Nelson, “Radical Years: Working-Class Consciousness on the
Waterfront in the 1930s” in Boris and Lichtenstein eds., Major Problems
in the History of American Workers (Lexington, Ky: DC Heath, 1991),
387-407.
Elizabeth Faue, “Paths of Unionization: Community, Bureaucracy, and
Gender in the Minneapolis Labor Movement of the 1930s,” in Baron, ed
Work Engendered.
Sharon Hartman Strom, “Challenging ‘Woman’s Place’: Feminism, the Left,
and Industrial Unionism in the 1930s” Feminist Studies 9 (1983):
359-386.
David Montgomery, ”The New Deal Synthesis,” in Workers Control in
America.
Michael Goldfield, “Race and the CIO: The Possibilities for Racial
Egalitarianism During the 1930s and 1940s” ILWCH 44(Fall 1993): 1-32
Big Question: Both Forbath and Cohen are concerned with writing
working-class histories that explain political change. Compare and
contrast how both historians explain the role of the state. (In
addressing this issue, you should compare the actors, issues, ideas,
institutions, and spaces that each historian explores.) Which
interpretation do you find most compelling and why?
October 10 Race and Class **Historiographic Topics and
Bibliographies Due **
Required Reading:
All in Eric Arneson, ed., The Black Worker: A Reader:
Introduction, 1-10.
Leslie Schwalm, “’Sweet Dreams of Freedom’: Freedwomen’s Reconstruction
of Life and Labor in Lowcountry South Carolina,” 11-40
Eric Arnesen, “The Quicksands of Economic Insecurity: African
Americans, Strikebreaking, and Labor Activism in the Industrial Era,”
41-71.
Tera Hunter, “’Work that Body’: African American Women, Work, and
Leisure in Atlanta and the New South,” 72-93.
Brian Kelly, “Industrial Sentinels Confront the ‘Rabid Faction’: Black
Elites, Black Workers and the Labor Question in the Jim Crow South,”
94-121
Cynthia M. Blair, “’We Must Live Anyhow’: African American Women and
Sex Work in Chicago, 1880-1900,” 122-146.
Class Reports:
David Roediger, Wages of Whiteness (ch.3)
James R. Barrett, “Whiteness Studies: Anything Here for Historians of
the Working Class? ILWCH 2001 (60): 33-42.
Robin Kelley, “We Are Not What We Seem: The Politics and Pleasures of
Community” JAH 80 (June 1993): 75-112
Herbert Hill,” The Problem of Race in American Labor History,” Reviews
in American History, 24 (June 1996): 189-208
Delores Janiewski, “Southern Honor, Southern Dishonor: Managerial
Ideology and the Construction of Gender, Race and Class Relations in
Southern Industry,” in Baron ed., Work Engendered
October 17th. A Gendered Reading of the Working-Class Experience
Required Reading:
Ava Baron, Work Engendered, intro.
Next three in: Labor: Studies in WorkingClass History of the Americas
Alice Kessler-Harris, “The Wages of Patriarchy: Some Thoughts about the
Continuing Relevance of Class and Gender,” 7-21.
Laurie Green, “’Where Would the Negro Women Apply for Work?’: Gender,
Race, and Labor in Wartime Memphis,” 95-117.
Kathleen M Barry, “’Too Glamorous to Be Considered Workers’: Flight
Attendants and Pink-Collar Activism in Mid-Twentieth-Century America,”
119-138.
Class Reports:
Introduction and essay by Stephen Meyer in Roger Horowitz ed.,
Boys and Their Toys.
Jeffrey Suzik, “’Building Better Men’: The CCC Boy and the Changing
Social Ideal of Manliness,” in Horowitz ed., Boys and Their Toys.
Larry J Griffin and Robert Korstad,” Class as Race and Gender: Making
and Breaking a Labor Union in the Jim Crow South,” Social Science
History 19 (Winter 1995): 425-454.
Elizabeth Faue, “The ‘Dynamo of Change’: Gender and Solidarity in the
Labor Movement of the Thirties,” Gender and History 1,2 (Summer 1989):
138-158.
Big Question: How do authors from the past two weeks discuss the role
of race and gender in the making and unmaking of the US working
class? Is one more important than the other at certain times and
in certain circumstances? (Be sure to compare and contrast the
methodological and theoretical choices each makes when writing their
histories.)
October 24th Globalization and Labor History
Required Reading:
Jefferson Cowie, Capital Moves
Class Report:
James Green, “Globalization of a Memory: The Enduring Remembrance of
the Haymarket Martyrs around the World” Labor: Studies in Working-Class
History of the Americas v. 2 n.4 Winter 2005, 11-23.
Julie Greene, “The Labor of Empire: Recent Scholarship on U.S. History
and Imperialism” Labor: Studies in Working-Class History of the
Americas, v. 1, n.2, (Summer 2004), 113-129.
Big Question: In the last decade, labor historians have broadened the
field to think critically about gender as well as globalization. What
do we learn from the most recent writings that we did not already know
from either the old or new labor history? Do you think the field is in
need of a new synthesis? If so, why? If not, why not?
October 31st Research/Writing Day
November 7th Labor and Radical Politics
Common Reading:
Randi Storch, Red Chicago
Class Reports:
Gerald Zahavi, “Passionate Commitments: Race, Sex, and Communism at
Schenectady General Electric, 1932-1945” in JAH 83 ( Sept 1996):
514-548.
Michael Kazin, “The Agony and Romance of the American Left,” American
Historical Review 100 (Dec. 1995): 1488-1512.
Van Gosse, “’To Organize in Every Neighborhood, in Every Home’: The
Gender Politics of American Communists between the Wars,” in Radical
History Review 50 (Spring 1991), 109-142;
Lichtenstein and Korstad, “Opportunities Lost and Found: Labor,
Radicals and the Early Civil Rights Movement.” in The Black Worker, ch.
9
November 14th The Decline of “Labor” in Postwar America/Taking Stock of
American Working-Class History
Common Reading:
David Oshinsky, Labor’s Cold War: The CIO and the Communists (Major
Problems)
Nelson Lichtenstein, “From Corporatism to Collective Bargaining:
Organized Labor and the Eclipse of Social Democracy in the Postwar Era”
in Steve Fraser and Gary Gerstle eds., The Rise and Fall of the New
Deal Order, 1930-1980
Thomas Sugrue, “Crabgrass—Roots Politics: Race, Rights and the Reaction
Against Liberalism in the Urban North, 1940-1964” JAH 82 (September
1995): 551-578.
Joseph McCartin, “’Fire the Hell out of Them’: Sanitation Workers’
Struggles and the Normalization of the Striker Replacement Strategy in
the 1970s” in Labor v. 2, n.3 (Fall 2005), 67-92
Dorothy Sue Cobble, “A ‘Tiger by the Toenail’: The 1970s Origins of the
New Working-Class Majority” in Labor v. 2, n.3 (Fall 2005), 103-114
Nelson Lichtenstein, “Supply Chains, Workers’ Chains and the New World
of Retain Supremacy,” Labor v. 4, no.1 (2007), 17-31
James Gregory, “Southernizing the American Working Class: Post War
Episodes of Regional and Class Transformations,” Labor History 39 (May
1998), 135-154.
Class Reports:
Eric Arnsen, “No ‘Grave Danger’: Black Anticommunism, The Communist
Party, and the Race Question,” Labor Winter 2006, 3:4
Forum on Lichtenstein and Walmart, Labor v. 4, n.1 (2007), 33-63
William Powell Jones, “’Simple Truths of Democracy’: African Americans
and Organized Labor in the Post-World War II South” in The Black
Worker, ch. 10
Nelson Lichtenstein, “The Making of the Postwar Working Class” The
Historian 51(1988).
Robert Zeiger, “Recent Historical Scholarship on Public Policy in
Relation to Race and Labor in the Post Title VII Period,” Labor
History, v. 46, n.1 (2005), 3-14.
Joshua Freeman, “Hardhats: Construction Workers, Manliness and the 1970
Pro-War Demonstrations,” Journal of Social History, v. 26, n.4 (1993),
725-744.
November 28 Research/Writing Day
December 5 Discuss and Turn in Final Papers in Class
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