Industria de Detroit o Hombre y Máquina, by Diego Rivera
                           Syllabus 
                              U.S. Labor History
                                               
Priscilla Murolo                                                                                              Labor 697C
pmurolo at slc.edu                                                                                           Winter 2009
                                                         
                                          Click here for the class schedule.  

Reading assignments
Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (paperback ed. from Yale Nota Bene, 2001)
Theresa Malkiel, The Diary of a Shirtwaist Striker (paperback edition from ILR Press, Cornell University)
Priscilla Murolo and A.B. Chitty, From the Folks Who Brought You the Weekend: A Short, Illustrated History of Labor in the United States
Mary Lynn Rampolla, A Pocket Guide to Writing in History (5th ed., 2006)
Articles and historical documents, itemized in the class schedule and available on-line (or distributed in class).

Before the course begins, please read (in this order): From the Folks, foreword and chapters 1 and 2; the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States; Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass; From the Folks, chapters 3 and 4; and The Diary of a Shirtwaist Striker (just the novel, pp. 81-212 in the ILR Press edition).

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Seminar meetings
The format will vary, including lectures, small-group work, plenary discussions, and student presentations. Reading assignments are paired with discussion questions posted on this website's questions page. Please think about these questions as you prepare for class. They'll provide the starting points for our deliberations.

Research paper
This paper can explore any topic in U.S. labor history, from the colonial period through the year 2008. The only requirement is that you consult at least some primary documents as well as pertinent scholarship. Students are invited, but not required, to do research directly related to their work in the labor movement.  For guidelines on historical research and writing, see Rampolla's Pocket Guide to Writing in History; but please document the
paper according to the rules laid out in the ULA Style Sheet (click here) and not Rampolla's book.  

The paper is due on May 1, 2009, and the recommended length is 20 pages (double-spaced type, including notes and bibliography).  Email the paper to <pmurolo@slc.edu> or send it to Priscilla Murolo, 22 Wiltshire Place, Yonkers, New York 10708. Be sure to keep a back-up copy.

During the week of January 5-10, every student will have a one-to-one conference to discuss possibilities for the research paper. A one-page prospectus is due at our second to last class on Tuesday, January 13. The prospectus should:
- Lay out the central question that prompts your research: what do you want to figure out?
- State your thesis in reply to that question: what's your best guess at this point?
- Explain the significance of your project: how does it matter to your work or to some other worthy project?
- Include a preliminary bibliography of relevant scholarship (books, articles, on-line sources).
- Briefly describe and note the location of the primary documents you intend to use.

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C L A S S   S C H E D U L E:                             
Dates, Topics, Reading Assignments
All of the texts marked with an asterisk (*) are on electronic reserve at the Du Bois Library.  Here is a link to the course page: (to be inserted). The password is (to be inserted).  In some cases, direct links to the texts are also available, and you will find them below. Please note that the on-line reserve liist includes some items (from previous years) that don't appear
on our syllabus. You needn't read those items. 
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Monday, January 5                                                                                                      
Introductions/The Unfinished Revolution                                                             

Reading: From the Folks Who Brought You the Weekend, foreword and chapters 1 and 2
*Declaration of Independence - click for direct link
*Constitution of the United States - click below for direct links
          Original Constitution         
          Bill of Rights (Amendments 1-10)
          Amendments 11-27
In each case, click on "read transcript."

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Tuesday, January 6
The Slaveholding Republic/Another Unfinished Revolution                                   

Reading:
From the Folks, chapters 3 and 4
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
* Gerda Lerner, ed., "The Case of Margaret Garner," "They Called Her Moses," and "An Ingenious Escape," in Black Women in White America: A Documentary History
*Civil War and Reconstruction chronology
*Emancipation Proclamation - click for direct link (scroll down for a link to the transcript)
*13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution - click for direct link

Recommended:
*Nathan Huggins, "The Deforming Mirror of Truth," Radical History Review no. 49 (Winter 1991): 25-48
*Martha Biondi, "The Rise of the Reparations Movement," Radical History Review no. 87 (Fall 2003): 5-18

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Wednesday, January 7
The Gilded Age 
                                                                                                      
Reading:
From the Folks, chapter 5

*Knights of Labor, "Preamble and Declaration of Principles" (circa 1885) - click for direct link
*Las Gorras Blancas, "Nuestra Platforma"(circa 1889)
*Samuel Gompers, "Free Speech and Public Assembly" (1891-1914)
*Lucy Warner, "Why Do People Look Down on Working Girls?" (1890)
*Lucy Parsons, "The Principles of Anarchism" (189?) - click for direct link
*National People's Party Platform (1892) - click for direct link
*David Adams, "Internal Military Interventions in the United States," Journal of Peace Research 32:2 (1995): 197-211 - click for direct link
  
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Thursday, January 8
Politics and Direct Action   
                                                                                   
Reading:
From the Folks, chapter 6
Diary of a Shirtwaist Striker (just the novel, pp. 81-212 in the ILR edition)
documents on political action, from the American Federation of Labor the Socialist Party, and the Industrial Workers of the World:
          *Samuel Gompers (AFL), "The Political Policy of Organized Labor"
          *Eugene Debs (SP), "Unionism and Socialism" (excerpts)
          *Mrs Robert Patterson (SP), "The Negro Woman in Politics"
          *Ernest Riebe, "Mr. Block: He Tries Political Action" (IWW)
          *"Organize on the Job Where You Are Robbed" (IWW)
          *Vincent St. John (IWW), "Political Parties and the I.W.W."
          *Mother Jones, "You Don't Need a Vote to Raise Hell," from The Autobiography of Mother Jones - click for direct link
 
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Friday, January 9
Hard Times, Fighting Times 
                                                                                 
Reading:
From the Folks, chapters 7 and 8 and first sections of chapter 9 (pp. 221-31)
*Mary Heaton Vorse, "Victory in Flint" and "The Chrysler Strike," in Labor's New Millions
*Vicki Ruiz, "Women's Participation in UCAPAWA Locals, 1939-1950": Tables 4 and 5, in Ruiz, Cannery Women, Cannery Lives: Mexican Women, Unionization, and the California Food Processing Industry, 1930-1950
*Philip Murray, "Report of the President," Final Proceedings of the Eighth Constitutional Convention of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (1946)

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Saturday, January 10
Repression, Accommodation, Resistance    
                                                          
Reading:
From the Folks, final sections of chapter 9 (pp. 231-45) and chapter 10
*Tim Shorrock, "Labor's Cold War," The Nation, May 19, 2003
*SEIU, "SEIU Resolution to End U.S. Occupation of Iraq, and [for] Return of U.S. Troops," New Labor Forum 13:3 (Fall 2004): 95-97
*AFL-CIO Executive Council, Resolution #53 (on the war in Iraq), adopted by the AFL-CIO Convention, 2005

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Monday, January 12
New Challenges, New Labor                                                                                  

Reading:
From the Folks, chapters 11 and 12 and epilogue
*Rocío Sáenz, reflections in Voices from the Front Lines: Organizing Immigrant Workers in Los Angeles, ed. by Ruth Milkman and Kent Wong

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Tuesday, January 13
At the Grassroots
                                                                                                   
Reading:
*Miriam Louie, "'Just-in-Time' Guerilla Warriors: Immigrant Workers' Centers," in Sweatshop Warriors: Immigrant Women Workers Take On the Global Factory
Articles about labor's future - to be distributed in class

HAND IN THE PROSPECTUS FOR THE RESEARCH PAPER.

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Wednesday, January 14                                                                                               
Looking Backward, Looking Forward                                                                 

Course evaluation and presentation of research plans.

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