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Readings for December 9th: The Future of Work and the Transformation of the Democratic Party
Since the vote was almost even split between “The Future of Work” and the “Democrats and Class Politics,” I’ve decided to do a bit of both. The required readings for our final week are: Future of Work Aaron Benanav, “A World Without Work?” Dissent (Fall 2020) Chloe Watlington, “Who Owns Tomorrow?” Commune. The Democrats and Class Politics Brent […]
Reading Responses for December 2: The Long Downturn
Judith Stein’s piece picks up where we left off by providing, I think, a more pointed historical argument about what ended the New Deal order. While organized labor makes an appearance here, this is much more of a political history, covering policy options not taken, presidential politics, Paul Volcker, and a particular critique of the […]
Reading Responses for November 18: The Fall of the New Deal Order
Readings: Jefferson Cowie and Nick Salvatore, “The Long Exception: Rethinking the Place of the New Deal in American History,” International Labor and Working-Class History, No. 74 (Fall 2008). What made the New Deal order possible? Why is it a “long exception”? Lane Windham, “Signing Up the Shipyard: Organizing Newport News and Reinterpreting the 1970s,” LABOR: Studies in […]
Reading Discussion for November 11: New Worlds of Work
Jeff is our head poster for this coming week’s readings: Gavin Wright, Sharing the Prize: The Economics of the Civil Rights Revolution in the American South (Cambridge, 2013), Chapter 6. How did the Voting Rights Act transform the lives of African-American workers in the South? How did it affect white workers? Ruth Milkman, “Immigrant Organizing and the […]
(Optional) November 4th Readings: Black Freedom
Please remember that all of this week’s readings are optional. We will watch a documentary that day, but you are of course welcome to do the readings and comment on the readings here: Gavin Wright, Sharing the Prize: The Economics of the Civil Rights Revolution in the American South (Cambridge, 2013), Chapters 2, 4, 6-8. Jacquelyn […]
Reading Discussion for October 28: The New Deal Order
Please write questions and, if you had strong opinions on any of the readings, comments for the following readings: Kristoffer Smemo, Samir Sonti, and Gabriel Winant, “Conflict and Consensus: The Steel Strike of 1959 and the Anatomy of the New Deal Order,” Critical Historical Studies, Vol. 4, No. 1 (Spring 2017). Kim Phillips-Fein, “Business Conservatism on […]
Reading for October 21st: Making the New Deal
Please note that for this week you are not required to write a reading response but you are of course welcome to do so if it helps you organize your thoughts about the reading: Lizabeth Cohen, “Workers Make a New Deal,” in David E. Hamilton, The New Deal (New York, 1999). Jennifer Klein, “The Politics of […]
Reading Discussion for October 7: Freedom and Unfreedom in the Lean Years
Readings: Irving Bernstein, The Lean Years: A History of the American Worker, 1920-1933 (Chicago, 2010): Chapter 1 up to section 5 (pages 47-66) and all of Chapter 2. [if you’re pressed on time please just focus on Chapter 2). Why did labor unions struggle or fail in the 1920s? What was Samuel Gompers’s theory of the place […]
Reading Discussion for September 30: Populism and Radicalism
Readings: Charles Postel, “The American Populist and Anti-Populist Legacy,” in Transformations of Populism in Europe and the Americas: History and Recent Tendencies, John Abromeit, et al, eds. (Bloomsbury Academic, London, 2015). Lawrence C. Goodwyn, “Populist Dreams and Negro Rights- East Texas as a Case Study.” The American Historical Review 76.5 (1971): 1435–1456. Leon Fink, “The Great […]
Reading Discussion for September 23: The Work of Conquest and Development
Readings: Manu Karuka, Empire’s Tracks: Indigenous Nations, Chinese Workers, and the Transcontinental Railroad (Oakland, 2019), Chapters 3-5 (chapters 6 and 7 now “optional”) For Chapter 3, read the first half closely and skim the rest of the chapter. Don’t get bogged down in the particulars. For all three chapters, think about these questions: What is the relationship […]
Reading Discussion for September 16: Slavery and Freedom
Head posters will write a summary and interpretation of at least one of this week’s readings: W.E.B. DuBois, Black Reconstruction in America, 1860-1880 (New York, 1935, 1962, 1992), Chapters 1-4. Thavolia Glymph, Out of the House of Bondage: The Transformation of the Plantation Household (New York, 2008), Chapter 6. Barbara Fields, “Slavery, Race and Ideology […]
Reading Discussion for September 9: Varieties of Non-Slave Labor
Head posters will write a summary and interpretation of at least one of this week’s readings: Sean Wilentz, Chants Democratic: New York City and the Rise of the American Working Class, 1788-1850 (New York, 1984, 2004), Introduction and Chapters 1-2. Herbert Gutman, “Work, Culture and Society in Industrializing America,” The American Historical Review, Vol. 78, No. 3 (June […]
Reading Discussion September 2: Work and the Origins of American Capitalism
[Please write your responses and questions in the comments to this post] Hulya Kartal wrote: Naomi R. Lamoreaux refuses to settle in a binary argument for the timeline of the American farmers utilizing capitalism. During the late 1970s, so-called moralist economists, M. Merrill, J. Henretta, and C. Clark claimed that the American economy was not […]
Weekly Reading Discusion
Each week, two students will post two short paragraphs here. The first paragraph should summarize at least one of the readings. This paragraph should state clearly the author(s) argument(s) and what kinds of evidence or assumptions the author relied on for their argument. The second paragraph should state briefly whether or not the student found […]
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