Beaten down, worked up : the past, present, and future of American labor
by Steven Greenhouse

From the longtime New York Times labor correspondent comes an in-depth look at working men and women in America, the challenges they face, and how they can be re-empowered.

Black folk : the roots of the Black working class
by Blair Murphy Kelley

An award-winning historian shows how the experiences of the Black working class, from the earliest days of the republic to the essential worker of the Covid pandemic, is essential to a full understanding of the American story.

The Disney Revolt : The Great Labor War of Animation's Golden Age
by Jake S. Friedman

Soon after the birth of Mickey Mouse, one animator raised the Disney Studio far beyond Walt's expectations. That animator also led a union war that almost destroyed it. Art Babbitt animated for the Disney studio throughout the 1930s and through 1941, years in which he and Walt were jointly driven to elevate animation as an art form, up through Snow White, Pinocchio, and Fantasia. But as America prepared for World War II, labor unions spread across Hollywood. Disney fought the unions while Babbitt embraced them. Soon, angry Disney cartoon characters graced picket signs as hundreds of animation artists went out on strike. Adding fuel to the fire was Willie Bioff, one of Al Capone's wiseguys who was seizing control of Hollywood workers and vied for the animators' union. Using never-before-seen research from previously lost records, including conversation transcriptions from within the studio walls, author and historian Jake S. Friedman reveals the details behind the labor dispute that changed animation and Hollywood forever.

Fight like hell : the untold history of American labor
by Kim Kelly

This history of the labor movement examines the workers and organizers who risked their livelihoods to fight for fair wages, better working conditions and an eight-hour workday. 

The great escape : a true story of forced labor and immigrant dreams in America
by Saket Soni

In 2007, Saket Soni received an anonymous phone call from an Indian migrant worker inside a Mississippi labor camp. He and 500 other men were living in squalor in Gulf Coast "man camps," surrounded by barbed wire, watched by armed guards, crammed into cold trailers with putrid portable toilets, forced to eat moldy bread and frozen rice. Worse, lured by the promise of good work and green cards, the men had desperately scraped together up to 20,000 dollars each to apply for this "opportunity" to rebuild oil rigs after Hurricane Katrina, putting their families into impossible debt. Soni traces the workers' extraordinary escape; their march on foot to Washington, DC; and their 31-day hunger strike to bring attention to their cause.

No right to an honest living : the struggles of Boston's black workers in the Civil War era
by Jacqueline Jones

An award-winning historian, in this harrowing portrait of Black workers and white hypocrisy in 19th-century Boston, highlights their everyday struggles and how injustice in the workplace prevented this city—and the US—from securing true equality for all. 

On the job : the untold story of worker centers and the new fight for wages, dignity, and health
by Celeste Monforton

A noted public health expert and award-winning journalist traveled across the country, speaking with workers of all backgrounds and uncovering the stories of hundreds of new, worker-led organizations that have successfully achieved higher wages, safer working conditions and on-the-job dignity for their members.

On the line : a story of class, solidarity, and two women's epic fight to build a union
by Daisy Pitkin

Taking readers inside a bold five-year campaign to bring a union to the dangerous industrial laundry factories of Phoenix, Arizona, this book offers a long overdue look at the modern-day labor movement, how difficult it is to bring about social change, and why we can't afford to stop trying.

Shift happens : the history of labor in the United States
by J. Albert Mann

This eye-opening and engaging history of the worker actions that brought us weekends, pay equality, desegregation, an end to child labor and more documents how the labor movement has shaped America and how it intersects with many of the major issues facing modern teens. 

Where are the workers? : labor's stories at museums and historic sites
by Robert Forrant

The labor movement in the United States is a bulwark of democracy and a driving force for social and economic equality. Yet its stories remain largely unknown to Americans. Robert Forrant and Mary Anne Trasciatti edit a collection of essays focused on nationwide efforts to propel the history of labor and working people into mainstream narratives of US history. In Part One, the contributors concentrate on ways to collect and interpret worker-oriented history for public consumption. Part Two moves from National Park sites to murals to examine the writing and visual representation of labor history. Together, the essayists explore how place-based labor history initiatives promotes understanding of past struggles, creates awareness of present challenges, and supports efforts to build power, expand democracy, and achieve justice for working people. A wide-ranging blueprint for change, Where Are the Workers? shows how working-class perspectives can expand our historical memory and inform and inspire contemporary activism.