Course Title:
Immigrant Workers' History in the United States, 1877 to the Present
Course Description:
This class will study the impact that immigrant workers have had on the history
of the American working class. We will analyze six historical moments when
immigrant workers have made significant contributions to workers rights. We
will study the ways in which the community-workplace model, which immigrant
workers have embraced more readily than craft or industrial unionism, has
promoted women's activism. This course will examine how immigrant workers have
been a central radicalizing force throughout recent labor history.
Course Requirements:
Because we are meeting for only six intensive sessions there is a good amount
of reading expected. Please do the reading ahead of time so we can have a
discussion-based class.
Reading List:
Beyond the Martyrs: A Social History of Chicago’s Anarchists, 1870-1900 by
Bruce Nelson
Radicals of the Worst Sort: Laboring Women in Lawrence, Massachusetts,
1860-1912 by Ardis Cameron
Women of the Depression: Caste and Culture in San Antonio, 1929-1939 by
Julia Kirk Blackwelder
Rainbow at Midnight: Labor and Culture in the 1940s by George Lipsitz
The Suppression of Salt of the Earth by James J. Lorence
Holding up More than Half the Sky: Chinese Women Garment Workers in New York
City, 1948-92 by Xiaolan Bao
History classes involve a lot of reading and these are very exciting books that you will want to go back and refer to time and time again. So I strongly encourage you to take a little time to go up on-line at a website like abe.com and buy cheap, used copies. However if you would like to take the class but cannot afford all the books, contact me directly and we will try to work something out.
As part of the first session we will discuss how to read a history book, what to focus on and how not to get lost in the details.
For
the first reading Beyond the Martyrs by Bruce Nelson I would like
you to read the introduction and focus on the sections on the social structure
of the anarchist movement and the struggle for the 8 hour day. In
particular I am interested in discussing the tensions between immigrant and
nativist sections of the working class that intensified during the 8 hour day
movement.
There will be no class on April 28th.