Labor in America: a history

1. Colonial America. Life and labor in the Colonies. Workers, politics, and revolution

2. The first unions. Early unions ; Law vs. labor ; Growth of labor organization

3. The workingmen’s parties. Leadership ; Political action

4. Labor strength in the 1830s. Union growth ; A national labor movement? An urge to strike ; An employer counterattack ; The National Trades Union ; The decline of unionism

5. The Impact of industrialism. Industrialism. Technological change, and reform ; Rebuilding a union movement

6. Toward national organization. The National Labor Union ; The NLU and social reform ; Depression and union decline

7. An era of upheaval. Unrest and conflict ; The great railroads strikes ; The Haymarket Riot

8. The rise and decline of the Knights of Labor. Origins of the Knights of Labor ; The rise of the Knights ; The decline of the Knights

9. The American Federation of Labor. Triumph of business unionism ; Samuel Gompers and the new unionism ; Emergence of the AFL ; AFL principles and policies

10. Homestead and Pullman. The Great Pullman strike and boycott ; Labor, populism, and socialism ; Labor in ebb tide

11. The Progressive Era. Employers and unions: A new understanding ; The Anthracite Coal strike, 1902 ; Employers fight back ; AFL and political action ; Organizing immigrant workers

12. Thunder on the left. The Wobblies ; The spirit of the IWW ; The Lawrence strike ; Repressing the IWW, 1913-1919 ; The meaning of the IWW

13. The First World War

and after. Postwar labor upheaval ; Year of strikes, 1919 ; Labor militancy

14. Labor in retreat. The American Plan and the open shop ; Welfare capitalism ; Labor and Insurgent politics ; The AFL after Gompers ; The demoralization of organized labor

15. The New Deal. Section 7 (a). A new unionism and Its limits ; The Wagner Act ; The New Deal political order

16. The rise of the Congress of Industrial organizations. John L. Lewis and the CIO ; The Impact of the CIO

17. Labor and politics. War, Lewis, and the election of 1940

18. The Second World War. The National War Labor Board ; The 1945-1946 strike wave ; A new Industrial relations system

19. From Taft-Hartley to the merger of the AFL and the CIO. AFL and the CIO ; Labor, Taft-Hartley, and politics ; A united labor movement ; AFL-CIO: A "Sleepy monopoly"

20. Disappointed hopes. Labor’s decline ; Corruption, politics, and labor’s travail ; Race, war, and agricultural workers ; A satisfied labor movement

21. Hard times: Workers and union, 1973-1992. An end to economic growth? Restructuring the labor force ; The rise of public employee unionism ; Labor and politics ; The crisis of unionism ; Lane Kirkland and dashed hopes ; Union troubles in mass-production industries ; Deregulation and union decline in transportation ; A mixed bag ; A new labor-left alliance ; A dim future for labor?

22. Hope and despair: Workers and unions since 2000. Labor and politics ; A new unionism ; Hard and dangerous work ; A new war economy ; Toward an unequal society ; The Wal-Mart effect ; Labor’s travails cause dissension ; Triumph and tribulation ; Whither labor? ; Further reading.