Business & Economics / Labor

An original examination of legislative clashes over the singular issue of the glass house boys, who performed menial tasks, received low wages, and had little to say on their own behalf while toiling in glass bottle plants. Flannery reveals the many societal, economic, and political factors at work that allowed for the perpetuation of child labor in this industry and region.

Centered around mostly ordinary people, Harry, Tom, and Father Rice relates the story of the author’s uncle Harry Davenport, union leader Tom Quinn, and Father Charles Owen Rice to the great conflict between anti-Communist and Communist forces in the American labor movement.

Examination of why the power and role of workers’ unions have greatly diminished in the former Soviet Union and Eastern European countries since the fall of Communism. Generally surprising turn of events, since organized labor played a large role in regime change.

The Steel Workers remains a readable and timeless account of labor conditions in the early years of the steel industry. An introduction by the noted historian Roy Lubove places the book in political and historical context.

A Richly Illustrated Account of a Crucial Moment in US Labor History

The Classic, Lively Narrative of a Seminal Labor Dispute in Appalachian History

This book explores the impact of technology on coal miners and operators. Dix reconstructs the history of the “hand-loading” era, then views the evolution of mechanical coal technology, the rise of the United Mine Workers, and the expanded role of the state under New Deal legislation.

A veteran reporter on American labor, John P. Hoerr analyzes the spectacular and tragic collapse of the steel industry in the 1980s. And the Wolf Finally Came demonstrates how an obsolete and adversarial relationship between management and labor made it impossible for the industry to adapt to a rapidly changing global economy.

In 1893 Arthur Burgoyne, one of Pittsburgh’s most skilled and sensitive journalists, published Homestead, a complete history of the 1892 Homestead strike and the ensuing conflict between the Carnegie Steel Company and the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers. Accurate, readable, and judiciously balanced in assigning blame, this work gives crucial insight into a turbulent period in Pittsburgh’s history.

This book is a firsthand account of the experience of unionization in personal and social terms. Freidlander describes the transformation of a working-class community by its own actions and the ensuing stratification within that union.