COURSE SYLLABUS

Course title: LABOR HISTORY IN THE US

Summer Semester 2012 Mgr. Barbora Čapinská, capinska@seznam.cz

Course description:

This history course is about economic history of the United States from the worker’s perspective. In each course we will examine both the economic development of the country as a whole, as well as specific problems of workers in each period. We will not only focus on the history of organized labor, on trade unions and their struggle against big business, rural and urban workers’ lot will also be contrasted. Special attention will be paid to minority groups of different ‘races’, ethnicities, gender and their position on the labor market and within the labor movement. Riots, demonstrations, and work stoppages shall not be omitted either.

Course objectives:

The main objective of the course is for the students to understand how and whether the laborers’ working and living conditions, and struggles with employers and the State changed over the decades. Also it is important for the students to realize how average workers, men and women, contributed to the economic development of the US. Students will examine key factors that determined rapid economic development of the US, such as mass immigration, as well as theoretical concepts such as taylorism. Through their research papers, historical data analyses and presentations they will also improve their academic skills.

Methods of evaluation and the composition of class grade:

Presentation (30%)

Research paper (30%)

Final exam (40%)

Students are expected to come to classes regularly, prepared, and actively participate in the discussions. The topics for presentations and research papers need to be consulted before proceeding. The papers should be about 5 pages long and the content and quality are obviously much more important than length. You are expected to use proper annotation and attribution (see, for example, the Chicago Manual of Style). Formal shortcomings will result in a lowered grade. Any cheating and plagiarism will be penalized. The final exam will be based on lectures and readings.

Topical outline:

1. Colonial times and the revolutionary era

v An indentured Servant Writes Home, 1623; in: Major Problems in the History of American Workers: documents and essays, ed. by Eileen Boris and Nelson Lichtenstein, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2003, pp. 20-22

v Distinguishing Slaves from Indentured Servants in Virginia, 1705; in: Major Problems in African American History: documents and essays. Volume I: From Slavery to Freedom, 1619-1877, ed. by Thomas C. Holt and Elsa Barkley Brown, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000, p. 91

v Dunn, Richard S. Servants and Slaves of the East, in: Major Problems in the History of American Workers (2003), pp. 32-42

v Main, Gloria L. Gender, Work, and Wages in Colonial New England, in: Major Problems in American Women’s History: documents and essays, ed. by Mary Beth Norton and Ruth M. Alexander, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2003, pp. 54-61

v Wulf, Karin. Women’s Work in Colonial Philadelphia, ibidem, pp. 61-68

v Nash, Gary B. The Web of Seaport Life, 1600-1700, in: Major Problems in American Urban and Suburban History: documents and essays, ed. by Howard P. Chudacoff and Peter C. Baldwin, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, (2005), pp. 47-56

2. The nation takes shape 1789-1850

possible case studies: transportation revolution - canals and railroads

v Debate Over Manufactures in the Early Republic, in: Major Problems in the History of American Technology: documents and essays, ed. by Merritt Roe Smith and Gregory Clancey, Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 1998, pp. 103-119

v Rules and Regulations of the Matteawan Company, 1846, ibidem, pp. 146-147

v Flour Riot in New York, 1837; in: American Violence, ed. by Richard Hofstadter and Michael Wallace, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1970, pp. 126-

v Bruchey, Stuart. The Early American Industrial Revolution, in: Major problems in the Early Republic, 1787-1848: documents and essays, ed. by Sean Wilentz, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1992, pp. 212-220

v Wilentz, Sean. Metropolitan Industrialization, ibidem, pp.220-227

v Swartz, Omar. Defending Labor in Commonwealth v. Pullis: Contemporary Implications For Rethinking Community, Murdoch University Electronic Journal of Law, Vol. 11, No. 1, available at: http://www.murdoch.edu.au/elaw/issues/v11n1/swartz111.html

3. From craftsmen to employees

possible case studies: New England’s textile mills; mining in the East and the West

v Amelia, A Woman Worker, Protests Lowell Wage Slavery, 1845; Journeymen Tailors Protest Wage Slavery, 1836; in: Major Problems in the History of American Workers (2003), pp. 62-65

v Dawley, Alan. Lynn Shoemakers and the Solidarity of Class, in: Major Problems in the History of American Workers (2003), pp. 68-78

v Bertoff, Rowland. The Social Order of the Anthracite Region, 1825-1902, in: Essays on American Social History, ed. by John Lankford and David Reimers, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1970; pp. 60-75

v Rhodes, James Ford. The Molly Maguires in the Anthracite Region of Pennsylvania, in: The American Historical Review, Vol. 15, No. 3 (Apr. 1910), pp. 547-561; stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1835190

4. Black workers: slavery and after slavery. Civil War and Reconstruction.

possible case study: black workers in trade unions

v A Planter on Child Rearing, 1836; A Northern Unionist Lectures Ex-Slaves on the Work Ethic, 1865; "We Demand land": Petition by Southern Freedmen, 1865; in: Major Problems in History of the American Worker (2003), pp. 96-98

v Foner, Eric. Emancipation and the Reconstruction of Southern Labor, ibidem, pp. 112-122

v Ayers, Edward L. Mill and Mine, in: Major Problems in the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era: documents and essays, ed. by Leon Fink, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001, pp. 98-107

v Jones, Jacqueline. Bent backs in the Rural South, ibidem, pp. 107-114

v Cincinnati Sewing Women Protest Their Wartime Wages, February 1865, in: Major Problems in the Civil War and Reconstruction: documents and essays, ed. by Michael Perman, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998, pp. 194-195

v Shaw Paludan, Phillip. Industrial Workers and the Costs of War, ibidem, pp. 203-214

recommended reading:

v Vicksburg, 1874; in: American Violence (1970), pp. 223-229

v Slave Narratives, accessible at: http://newdeal.feri.org/asn/asn00.htm (Sample one interview)

5. The Industrial Revolution and the Progressive Era

possible case study: a comparison of past and contemporary working and living conditions of the immigrant labor

required readings:

v Richard T. Ely Weighs the Benefits and Disadvantages of Life in a Company Town, 1885; Jacob Riis Warns of the Social Dangers Posed by Bad Housing, 1890; Jane Addams Explains the Need for Settlement Houses, 1892; in: Major Problems in American Urban and Suburban History (2005), pp. 179-190

v Economist John R. Commons Denounces the "Sweating System," 1901; Investigator John Fitch Describes Steel’s Long Shift, 1912; Frederick Winslow Taylor Explains the Principles of Scientific Management, 1916, in: Major Problems in the History of American Worker (2003), pp. 205-209

v Dawley, Alan. Progressive Statecraft, in: Major problems in the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era: documents and essays, ed. by Leon Fink, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001, pp. 397-404

v Foner, Eric. Freedom and the Progressive State, ibidem, pp. 404-411

v Rischin, Moses. The Immigrant Ghetto, in: The Social Fabric… J.H. Cary and J. Weinberg, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1987, pp. 110-113

recommended readings:

v Riis, Jacob A., How the Other Half Lives: Studies among the tenements of New York, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1890, available at: