Table of Contents

Preface1. European and Colonial Foundations to 17602. Labor and Liberty in the Formation of the Nation, 1760-18303. Great Contrasts: Factory and Field, Slavery and Democracy, Civil War, 1830-18654. The Heroic Age of Labor; The Days of the "Martyrs and the Saints," 1865-18935. Challenges and Responses, 1893-19136. Bang, Boom, Bust: The Great War, Jazz Age, and Great Crash, 1914-19327. Labor Valued: The New Deal and War, 1933-19478. Constructing Consensus: Labor in the Cold War, 1945-19689. Labor and the Corporate State, 1969-199210. Labor's Recent Past and the Future of Democracy

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A comprehensive, readable history of work in America

About the Author

Philip Yale Nicholson is Professor of History at Nassau Community College and Adjunct Professor at the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Long Island Extension. He is the author of Who Do We Think We Are?: Race and Nation in the Modern World.

Reviews

"Nicholson's style is clear and readable, and students were especially engaged by his discussion of the power of capital to shape American culture...[a] monumental work that prods us to consider the fate of labor and democracy." Labor Studies Journal "Nicholson's history of labor is the story of the evolving dynamics of democracy and equality, and it could serve as a general history of the United States from the bottom-up perspective. Labor's Story in the United States is balanced, thoroughly supported, and accessible to an undergraduate or popular readership. Equally important, it is written by a scholar who cares about the people whose story he tells." WorkingUSA "We have long needed a lively and intelligent history of the labor movement in the United States, and Philip Yale Nicholson gives us just that. He provides a rich historical context, and a refreshing class consciousness. I believe this book will be invaluable in educating a new generation about a much neglected and crucial part of the nation's history." - Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States "This is a wonderfully comprehensive narrative of American labor, full of insight and shrewd judgments. It will be exceedingly useful in the classroom." - Nelson Lichtenstein, University of California, Santa Barbara, and author of State of the Union: A Century of American Labor