Over the first three decades of the 20th century, Minneapolis was the most notorious “open shop” city in the country. An employers’ organization (the “Citizens’ Alliance”) leveraged the power of banks, manufacturers, and local government to resist workers’ attempts to unionize.
HS: It is an honor to be asked by Professor Rosemary Feurer of LaborOnline to interview Robert W. Cherny about his monumental 2023 biography of Harry Bridges. Dr. Cherny has written seven books in American history. He is emeritus professor
The current issue of Civil War History should be of interest to labor historians. Civil War History has generously allowed posting of my introduction, as guest editor, of this September 2024 issue. Last year, there was only one or two
A much-overlooked part of the rise of the Communist Party as the leading Left organization in the mid twentieth century is that it produced a robust network of schools for workers. An overview of these schools conveys the effort to
Harry Bridges: Labor Radical, Labor Legend by Robert W. ChernyRobert W. Cherny’s new book, Harry Bridges: Labor Radical, Labor Legend (University of Illinois Press, 2023) is a monumental achievement. More than thirty-five years in the making, it is exhaustively researched,
In fall 1936, the Chicago Public Library initiated the Chicago Foreign-Language Press Survey, with funding from the federal Works Progress Administration (WPA), one of the New Deal programs designed to provide unemployment relief and support engagement in cultural production. Over
Chad Pearson’s review follows a series of recent posts from Labor Online that reflect on and feature the work of contributors to Contingent Faculty and the Remaking of Higher Education: A Labor History (2024) edited by Eric Fure-Slocum and Claire
Every spring, over thirty women union activists are accepted to attend the Regina V. Polk Women’s Labor Leadership Conference, or The Polk School as it is fondly referred to. The Polk School is a program of the University of Illinois’
On Wednesday, May 15, 79% of 48,000 graduate student workers at the University of California who cast their ballots voted to authorize a strike. Their demands include UC divestment from weapons manufacturers and contractors who profit from the Israeli war
In my book, What Work Is, I assert that work has an enormous contradictory impact on the workers and society they build. Anthropologist Herbert Applebaum draws on a biological metaphor to centralize the importance of work to the individual and