Labour History Review

The studies offered in this volume integrate the history of wage labor, of slavery, and of indentured labor. They contribute to a Global Labor History freed from Eurocentrism and methodological nationalism.

The essays in this 1994 book aim to integrate labour history within the broader discipline of social history and to demonstrate the continuing vitality and validity of the sub-discipline. Each essay is in itself a response to criticisms of the ways in which labour historians have approached their subjects.

A political and economic analysis of the history of working people in Alberta.

The first comprehensive and authoritative history of work and labour in Africa; a key text for all working on African Studies and Labour History worldwide.

There has been a growing recognition amongst scholars that labour historians need to look beyond national borders in order to place the history of the working classes into a much broader context than has hitherto been the case. Whilst studies focused on individual countries are essential, it is only by comparing and contrasting the experiences across time and space that a true understanding of the subject can be attempted. Professor Marcel van der Linden, has contributed much to the debate on cross-border processes and comparisons. This volume makes available in English a collection of twelve of his most important essays on the theme of transnational labour history. Previously published in a range of journals and volumes, with two original contributions, Transnational Labour History brings them together in a single convenient collection, together with a new introduction. This work will undoubtedly provide an invaluable resource for all students of European labour history.

The BC tradition of fighting back against unfair pay and unsafe working conditions has been around since before the colony joined Confederation. In 1849 Scottish labourers at BC’s first coal mine at Fort Rupert went on strike to protest wretched working conditions, and it’s been a wild ride ever since. For years the BC labour movement was the most militant in the land, led by colourful characters like Ginger Goodwin, murdered for his pains, and pull-no-punches communist Harvey Murphy, who brought the house of labour down on himself with his infamous “underwear speech.” Through years of battles with BC’s power elite and small victories followed by bitter defeats, BC unions established the five-day work week, the eight-hour day, paid holidays, the right to a safe, non-discriminatory workplace and many more taken-for-granted features of the modern work landscape. But unions’ enemies never sleep and, well into the second decade of the twenty-first century, battles still go on, like that of BC teachers in their long and ultimately successful struggle to improve classroom conditions. On the Line also highlights the role played by women, Indigenous and minority workers in working toward equality and democracy in workplaces and communities. In prose that is both accessible and engaging, accompanied by over two hundred archival photos, Mickleburgh tells the important story of how BC’s labour organizations have shaped the economic, political and social fabric of the province—at a cost of much blood, sweat, toil and tears. This volume is the most comprehensive overview of labour’s struggle in BC and will be of particular interest to union members, community activists, academics and readers of regional history.

The Violence of Work demonstrates that violence has always been an important part of work under capitalism. The editors explore workplace violence in a diverse range of North American workplaces from the nineteenth through the twenty-first century.