LHIS 601 - U.S. Labor History (3 Credits)

Prerequisite: None
This course will examine U.S. labor history from the Great Depression of 1929 to the present. Students will examine this history from several perspectives, seeking to understand how the experience of workers and the nature of working-class institutions have evolved in the context of larger historical developments. In this process, the course will try to account for patterns of growth and decline in the labor movement, paying particular attention to: industrialization and deindustrialization; patterns of migration and immigration; and the historical relationships between organized labor and other movements for social justice. Students will explore how the ideologies and structures of organized labor have been shaped by major economic, political and social forces as well as diverse cultural expressions. At every level of analysis, students will address issues of race, gender, and sexual orientation, especially as these categories of social identity relate to class and class-formation. Assigned texts reflect a range of scholarship and differing points of view. Thus, students will become familiar with historiographical debates about topics covered in this course.