Who Built America? Working People in America

Catalog description

This course explores the history of working people's lives and social movements in the U.S. from the pre-industrial era, through the Industrial Revolution, to today's "post-industrial" society. This is not an Industrial Relations course. We look at three broad areas of historical change: 1) work itself; 2) the making and re-making of the American working class; and 3) the definitions of social justice that working people constructed for themselves and that informed their social movements. Our goal is to understand how and why the "Labor Question" was at the heart of American reform movements in the 19th and 20th centuries. Special attention will be given to the experiences of women, African Americans, and other racial and ethnic groups.