Hard Work: The Making Of Labor History

The Working Class in American History

by Melvyn Dubofsky

A career-spanning collection of writings by the legendary labor historian One of American labor history's most prominent scholars, Melvyn Dubofsky curated an accessible style and historical reach that have long marked his work as required reading for students and scholars.  This collection juxtaposes Dubofsky's early writings with scholarship from the 1990s. Selections include work on western working-class radicalism, U.S. labor history in transnational and comparative settings, and the impact of technological change on American worker’s movements. Throughout, the writings provide an invaluable eyewitness perspective on the academic and political climate of the 1960s and 1970s while tracing the development of labor history as a discipline.  An exploration of important themes in labor history,  Hard Work  combines essential scholarship with the story of how past and present interact in the work of historians.

Genres: Labor, History

264 pages, Paperback

First published April 17, 2000

About the author

A leading scholar of labor history, Melvyn Dubofsky is Bartle Distinguished Professor of History and Sociology emeritus at the State University of New York at Binghamton.