About Us
LAWCHA is an organization of scholars, teachers, students, labor educators, and activists who seek to promote public and scholarly awareness of labor and working-class history through research, writing, and organizing.
News & Alerts
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William D. Riddell On the Waves of Empire: U.S. Imperialism and Merchant Sailors, 1872-1924
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Michael Pierce Testifies about the Origin of Right to Work
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Kevin Kenny on his new book, The Problem of Immigration in a Slaveholding Republic
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COVID-19 and Authoritarian Populism
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Work, Disaster, and the Lost Possibilities of Pandemic Politics
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The Making and Breaking of a Popular Front: The Case of the National Negro Congress
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Labor and Public Memory in the Cradle of the Confederacy
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Francis Ryan: Memories of the Labor of School Crossing Guards
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Jake S. Friedman on The Disney Revolt: The Great Labor War and Animation’s Golden Age
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Rethinking Working-Class Identity in Northwest Timber Country
Upcoming Events
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REGISTRATION OPENClass in Everyday Life :Theory and Praxis
May 18-20, 2023•New Brunswick, New JerseyThe 2023 LAWCHA conference calls attention to spaces of class consciousness and organization in and beyond the workplace. CFP deadline is October 31, 2022.
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In Memoriam
Jane LaTour (1946-2023)
Bob Bussell on the memorable life of scholar activist Jane LaTour.

William D. Riddell On the Waves of Empire: U.S. Imperialism and Merchant Sailors, 1872-1924
Ian Rocksborough-Smith interviewed William D. Riddell about his new book On the Waves of Empire: U.S. Imperialism and Merchant Sailors, 1872-1924, published by the University of Illinois Press in 2023. Set mainly in the years preceding and following the Spanish-American War (1898) through World War I (1914-1918) and its aftermath, the book looks especially at the experiences of merchant sailors, their unions, and their labor leaders to indicate how class conflict impacted America’s emergent 20th Century empire. Read more →