New labor history

Last updated

New labor history is a branch of labor history which focuses on the experiences of workers, women, and minorities in the study of history. It is heavily influenced by social history.

Contents

Before the 1960s, most labor historians around the world focused on the history of labor unions. In the United States, for example, labor economists at the University of Wisconsin dominated the academic discipline of labor history. Their research focused on the development of markets, trade unions, and political philosophies.

In the 1950s, British and other European historians developed the field of social history to correct the structuralist imbalances they perceived in the study of history. Social historians not only sought to enlarge the study of history but to refocus it on the experiences of common people rather than institutions or elites.

British social historians such as E. P. Thompson, in particular, had a significant impact on American labor historians. Labor scholars to the right and left of the American political spectrum found it difficult to explain the rise of labor in the late 19th century, and social history offered at least a new approach to solving the riddle. Social history also took root at the same time that American organized labor began to decline. For left-leaning labor scholars, social history suggested a new way to revitalize the American labor movement by focusing attention away from conservative leaders and institutions, as well as a means for academics to engage with workers themselves. For some, the new labor history moved the discipline of labor history away from the Marxist theoretical perspective that saw trade union movements in terms of elites, classes, and institutions. [1]

European and American critics of the "new labor history" charge that historians now neglect institutions and elites. They argue that labor leaders and unions shape workers' goals and values as much as reflect them. They also point out that the "new labor history" has a tendency to ignore larger cultural trends and movements and technological developments which operate on a more systemic level than the individual.

Especially in the United States, many young labor historians are attempting a new synthesis of the "old" and "new" labor histories. [ citation needed ]

Examples of "new labor history" scholars

Examples of "old" labor history scholars

Related Research Articles

A trade union or labor union, often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages and benefits, improving working conditions, improving safety standards, establishing complaint procedures, developing rules governing status of employees and protecting and increasing the bargaining power of workers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Labor history of the United States</span>

The nature and power of organized labor in the United States is the outcome of historical tensions among counter-acting forces involving workplace rights, wages, working hours, political expression, labor laws, and other working conditions. Organized unions and their umbrella labor federations such as the AFL–CIO and citywide federations have competed, evolved, merged, and split against a backdrop of changing values and priorities, and periodic federal government intervention.

Labor history is a sub-discipline of social history which specializes on the history of the working classes and the labor movement. Labor historians may concern themselves with issues of gender, race, ethnicity, and other factors besides class but chiefly focus on urban or industrial societies which distinguishes it from rural history.

International political economy (IPE) is the study of how politics shapes the global economy and how the global economy shapes politics. A key focus in IPE is on the power of different actors such as nation states, international organizations and multinational corporations to shape the international economic system and the distributive consequences of international economic activity. It has been described as the study of "the political battle between the winners and losers of global economic exchange."

William Appleman Williams was one of the 20th century's most prominent revisionist historians of American diplomacy. He achieved the height of his influence while on the faculty of the department of history at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and is considered to be the foremost member of the "Wisconsin School" of diplomatic history.

Soviet and communist studies, or simply Soviet studies, is the field of regional and historical studies on the Soviet Union and other communist states, as well as the history of communism and of the communist parties that existed or still exist in some form in many countries, both inside and outside the former Eastern Bloc, such as the Communist Party USA. Aspects of its historiography have attracted debates between historians on several topics, including totalitarianism and Cold War espionage.

These are References for Labor unions in the United States.

Melvyn Dubofsky is professor emeritus of history and sociology, and a well-known labor historian. He is Bartle Distinguished Professor of History and Sociology at the Binghamton University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Historiography of the Cold War</span> Historiography of the Cold War

As soon as the term "Cold War" was popularized to refer to postwar tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union, interpreting the course and origins of the conflict became a source of heated controversy among historians, political scientists and journalists. In particular, historians have sharply disagreed as to who was responsible for the breakdown of Soviet Union–United States relations after the World War II and whether the conflict between the two superpowers was inevitable, or could have been avoided. Historians have also disagreed on what exactly the Cold War was, what the sources of the conflict were and how to disentangle patterns of action and reaction between the two sides. While the explanations of the origins of the conflict in academic discussions are complex and diverse, several general schools of thought on the subject can be identified. Historians commonly speak of three differing approaches to the study of the Cold War: "orthodox" accounts, "revisionism" and "post-revisionism". However, much of the historiography on the Cold War weaves together two or even all three of these broad categories and more recent scholars have tended to address issues that transcend the concerns of all three schools.

Consensus history is a term used to define a style of American historiography and classify a group of historians who emphasize the basic unity of American values and the American national character and downplay conflicts, especially conflicts along class lines, as superficial and lacking in complexity. The term originated with historian John Higham, who coined it in a 1959 article in Commentary titled "The Cult of the American Consensus". Consensus history saw its primary period of influence in the 1950s, and it remained the dominant mode of American history until historians of the New Left began to challenge it in the 1960s.

<i>The Haymarket Tragedy</i> 1984 history book by Paul Avrich

The Haymarket Tragedy is a 1984 history book by Paul Avrich about the Haymarket affair and the resulting trial.

<i>Anarchist Portraits</i> 1988 history book by Paul Avrich

Anarchist Portraits is a 1988 history book by Paul Avrich about the lives and personalities of multiple prominent and inconspicuous anarchists.

Tera Hunter is an American scholar of African-American history and gender. She holds the Edwards Professor of American History Endowed Chair at Princeton University. She specializes in the study of gender, race, and labor in the history of the Southern United States.

This is a select bibliography of post-World War II English-language books and journal articles about Stalinism and the Stalinist era of Soviet history. Book entries have references to journal reviews about them when helpful and available. Additional bibliographies can be found in many of the book-length works listed below.

Foster Rhea Dulles was an American journalist and historian, and author of a number of books. He specialized in political and cultural relations between the United States and East Asia, and advocated internationalism as opposed to American isolationism. The diplomats John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles were his cousins.

Eric D. Weitz was an American historian.

We Shall Be All: A History of the Industrial Workers of the World is a 1969 history book about the Industrial Workers of the World by Melvyn Dubofsky.

<i>Death in the Haymarket</i> 2006 book by James Green

Death in the Haymarket is a 2006 popular history book on the Haymarket affair, written by James Green.

<i>Barons of Labor</i> Book about San Francisco history in the American progressive era

Barons of Labor: The San Francisco Building Trades and Union Power in the Progressive Era is a history of San Francisco during the Progressive era, focusing on the relationship between labor and management in the construction industry. It was written by Michael Kazin and published by University of Illinois Press in 1987 ; it is part of the Working Class in American History series.

References

Footnotes

  1. ↑ See Rogin 2002.

Bibliography

  • Brody, David (1979). "The Old Labor History and the New: In Search of an American Working Class". Labor History. 20 (1): 111–126. doi:10.1080/00236567908584522. ISSN   1469-9702.
  •  ———  (1993). "Reconciling the Old Labor History and the New". Pacific Historical Review. 62 (1): 1–18. doi:10.2307/3640520. ISSN   1533-8584. JSTOR   3640520.
  • Buhle, Mari Jo; Buhle, Paul (1988). "The New Labor History at the Cultural Crossroads". Journal of American History. 75 (1): 151–157. doi:10.2307/1889661. ISSN   1945-2314. JSTOR   1889661.
  • Dubofsky, Melvyn (1977). "The 'New' Labor History: Achievements and Failures". Reviews in American History. 5 (2): 249–254. doi:10.2307/2701638. ISSN   1080-6628. JSTOR   2701638.
  • Fink, Leon (1988). "The New Labor History and the Powers of Historical Pessimism: Consensus, Hegemony, and the Case of the Knights of Labor". Journal of American History. 75 (1): 115–136. doi:10.2307/1889657. ISSN   1945-2314. JSTOR   1889657.
  • Gerstle, Gary (2002). "Preface to the Princeton Edition". Working-Class Americanism: The Politics of Labor in a Textile City, 1914–1960. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. pp. xi–xxiv. ISBN   978-0-691-08911-9.
  • Kimeldorf, Howard (1991). "Bringing the Unions Back in (or Why We Need a New Old Labor History)". Labor History. 32 (1): 91–129. doi:10.1080/00236569100890041. hdl: 2027.42/51181 . ISSN   1469-9702.
  • Kuhn, James W.; Lewin, David; McNulty, Paul J. (1983). "Neil W. Chamberlain: A Retrospective Analysis of His Scholarly Work and Influence". British Journal of Industrial Relations. 21 (2): 143–160. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8543.1983.tb00127.x. ISSN   1467-8543.
  • Painter, Nell Irvin (1989). "The New Labor History and the Historical Moment" (PDF). International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society. 2 (3): 367–370. doi:10.1007/BF01384831 . Retrieved 26 May 2021.
  • Rogin, Michael (2002). "How the Working Class Saved Capitalism: The New Labor History and The Devil and Miss Jones". Journal of American History. 89 (1): 87–114. doi:10.2307/2700785. ISSN   1945-2314. JSTOR   2700785.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.