History 410/510

Labor Pains:

The American Working-Class Experience in the Twentieth Century

Winter 2007 Bob Bussel

Tues/Th. 12:00-1:20 pm LERC-1675 Agate Street

360 Condon 346-2784

Office Hours: Tues, 3:30-5:00 pm, bussel@uoregon.edu

or by appointment

At the conclusion of World War I, President Woodrow Wilson declared: “The question that stands at the front of all others is the question of labor.”

Nearly a century later, it is difficult to imagine a politician let alone a president asserting the importance of what was once called the “labor question.” Yet throughout the past 100 years, Americans have consistently debated how best to balance the rights of labor versus those of capital, reconcile the prerogatives of the employing class with the needs of the working class, and more recently, determine the proper alignment between public and private interests. During the twentieth century, the social pendulum has shifted with regard to the labor question. Over the past three decades, it has swung sharply in the direction of support for managerial interests, a minimal regulatory role for government, and a profound faith in the free market. Earlier in the century, however, the pendulum tilted towards government intervention in the market, support for labor unions as representatives of workers' interests, and a belief that promoting democracy in the workplace was integral to the health of political democracy

The labor question now plays out in a global context. With the flow of jobs and capital overseas, the shift from a manufacturing to a service economy, the sharp decline of union power, growing wage inequality, the far-reaching impact of technological change, and a surge of immigration, workers face new if not totally unfamiliar challenges in their efforts to attain or hold onto to the promise of the American Dream.

This course will seek to examine and understand the complex, multiple forces that have affected the fortunes of workers and unions during the twentieth century. We will consider the varied strategies and tactics used by workers to exert social influence, the impact of race, gender, and ethnic status on working-class consciousness and solidarity, the impact of technological change and managerial practice on the process of work itself, and the emergence of capital mobility and globalization as critical economic and social challenges.

We will use a variety of primary and secondary sources to assist us in our exploration of the working-class experience, including historical monographs, memoirs, fiction, film, iconography, and oral histories. These sources will enable us to consider the labor and working-class experience from a variety of perspectives and allow students to evaluate the relative merits of different kinds of historical materials.