Offers a wide range of perspectives to provide an encompassing context of the United States' labor and economic histories.

Table of Contents

• Editorial and Production Staff
• List of Entries
• Introduction
• Preface
• Common Abbreviations Used in this Work
• Volume 1: ABRA–MUTU
• A
• Abraham Lincoln Brigade
• Accumulation, Social Structures of
• Adamson Act
• Adkins v. Children's Hospital
• Advertising
• Afl-Cio
• African American Labor Organizations
• Agricultural Adjustment Administration
• Agricultural Extension and Education
• Agricultural Workers
• Agriculture
• Colonial Era
• 1770 to 1890
• The Golden Age (1890 to 1920)
• Since 1920
• Airplanes and Air Transport
• Air Traffic Controllers’ Strike (1981)
• Alien Contract Labor Law
• Alliance for Labor Action
• Altgeld John P. (1847–1902),
• Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers
• American Anti-Boycott Association
• American Bankers Association
• American Economic Association and the New Economics
• American Federation of Labor
• American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations
• American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees
• American Federation of Teachers
• American Newspaper Guild
• American System of Manufacturing and Interchangeable Parts
• Anarchism and Labor
• Antilabor Mobilization after 1945
• Antitrust Legislation
• Antiunion Law Firms
• Apprenticed Labor
• Apprenticeship Systems
• Arnold Thurman (1891–1969),
• Arrow Kenneth (1921–),
• Artisanal Labor
• Astor John Jacob (1763–1848),
• Automotive Industry
• Aviation Industry
• B
• Bank of America
• Bank of the United States, First and Second
• Barbed Wire
• Battle of the Overpass (1937)
• Behavioral Economics
• Berle, Adolf, and Gardiner Means and the Modern Corporation
• Biemiller Andrew (1906–1982), labor leader and lobbyist.
• Biotechnology Industry
• Bisbee Strike and Deportation
• Braceros
• Brannan Plan
• Bretton Woods Conference
• Brewing and Distilling
• Bridges Harry (1901–1990), prominent labor leader.
• Brookwood Labor College
• Brophy John (1883–1963), leader of the United Mine Workers of America.
• Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
• Brown Brothers Harriman & Company
• Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Business Cycles
• Business Growth and Decline
• Business Roundtable
• C
• Campbell Soup
• Canals and Waterways
• Capitalism
• Capitalism and Immigration
• Capitalism and Industrial Democracy
• Carnegie, Andrew (1835–1919), industrial entrepreneur and philanthropist
• Cattlemen's Associations
• Chambers of Commerce
• Change to Win
• Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge
• Chase Manhattan Bank
• Chavez, Cesar (1927–1993), labor activist and founder and president of the United Farm Workers of America.
• Chemical Industry
• Chicago School
• Child Labor
• Citizens’ Committees and Alliances
• Civilian Conservation Corps
• Clark John Bates (1847–1938), neoclassical economist.
• Clark, John Maurice (1884–1963), economist.
• Class Consciousness
• Clayton Antitrust Act
• Clerical Workers
• Closed Shop
• Collective Bargaining
• Colorado Labor Wars (1903–1905)
• Commission on Industrial Relations
• Commodity Futures Markets
• Communications Revolution
• Communications Workers of America
• Company Unions
• Computer Monitoring of Office Workers
• Congress of Industrial Organizations
• Consumer Credit and Credit Cards
• Consumer Culture
• Consumer Movements
• Containerization and Transformation of Shipping
• Contract, Sanctity of
• Cooperatives
• Cooperatives and Worker Management
• Corn Hybrid
• Corporate Agriculture
• Corporations, Modern
• Corporatism
• Cotton Industry
• Cotton Trade, Antebellum Era
• Cowboys
• Coxey's Army
• Crédit Mobilier
• D
• Dairy Industry and Dairy Products
• Danbury Hatters’ Case
• Davis–Bacon Act
• Debs Eugene V. (1855–1926), labor leader, socialist, and presidential candidate.
• Department Stores
• Depressions, Economic
• Deregulation, Financial
• Deskilling
• Dockworkers’ Unions, Multiracial
• Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement
• Domestic Labor
• Duke James (1856–1925), manufacturer of tobacco products and philanthropist.
• Dust Bowl Era and Farm Crisis
• E
• Economic Deregulation and the Carter Administration
• Economic Development
• Economic Growth and Income Patterns
• Economic Regulation
• Economic Theories and Thought
• Education and Human Capital
• Eight-Hour Day
• Electricity and Electrification
• Employee Free Choice Act
• Employee Representation Plans
• Employment Act of 1946
• Employment-at-Will
• Energy Crises, Late Twentieth Century
• Environmental Regulations
• Equal Pay Act
• Erdman Act
• Executive Order 10988
• F
• Factory and Hours Laws
• Factory Farming
• Factory System
• Fair Deal
• Fair Employment Practices Committee
• Fair Housing Act
• Fair Labor Standards Act
• Family Farm
• Farm Bureau Federation
• Farm Machinery
• Federal Communications Commission
• Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
• Federal Housing Administration
• Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service
• Federal Regulatory Agencies
• Federal Reserve Act
• Federal Reserve System
• Federal Trade Commission
• Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions
• Film and Labor
• Financial and Banking Promotion and Regulation
• Financial Crises, 1980s–2010
• Firestone Harvey (1868–1938), industrialist and corporate executive.
• Fisheries
• Five-Dollar Day
• Fletcher Ben (1890–1949), African American labor leader.
• Flint General Motors Strike
• Flynn E. G. (1890–1964), labor activist.
• Food and Diet
• Ford, Henry, and Fordism
• Foreign Trade
• Forests and Forestry
• Foster William Z. (1881–1961), labor radical.
• Freed Laborers
• Freedom of Contract
• Free-Labor Ideology
• Free Silver and Bimetallism
• Friedman, Milton, and the Chicago School of Economics
• Fur Trade
• G
• Galbraith John Kenneth (1908–2006),
• Gallatin, Albert, and Economic Development
• Garment Industry
• Gastonia Strike (1929)
• Gates Bill (1955–), developer of computer software, businessman, and philanthropist.
• GATT and WTO
• Gender and Work
• General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)
• General Electric
• General Motors
• General Motors Strike (1945)
• George Henry (1839–1897), philosopher and reformer.
• Gibbons v. Ogden
• GI Bill
• Glass–Steagall, Repeal of
• Globalization
• Godcharles v. Wigeman
• Goldman Emma (1869–1940), anarchist, social activist, free-speech advocate, and spokesperson for women's freedom.
• Goldman Sachs
• Gold Rushes
• Gold Standard
• Gompers Samuel (1850–1924), labor leader and president of the American Federation of Labor (AFL).
• Government Regulation and Promotion
• Grain Processing
• Grains
• Granger Movement and Laws
• Great Depression (1929–1939)
• Great Recession of 2008 and After
• Great Society
• Great Upheaval of 1886
• Green William (1873–1952), labor leader.
• Greenbackism
• Greenback Labor Party
• Group of Eight (Twenty)
• H
• Hamilton, Alexander, and Economic Development
• Hanna Mark (1837–1904),
• Harriman E. H. (1848–1909), railroad financier.
• Haymarket Affair
• Haywood William D. (1869–1928), labor leader.
• Hepburn Act
• Herrin Massacre (1922)
• Highways and Interstates
• Hill James J. (1838–1916), businessman and railroad promoter.
• Hill Joe (1879–1915), labor activist and songwriter.
• Hillman Sidney (1887–1946),
• Hoffa James R. (1913–1975?), labor leader.
• Home Owners’ Loan Corporation
• Homestead Act
• Homestead Strike (1892)
• Homework
• Hormel P-9 Strike (1985)
• Household Technology and Domestic Labor
• Hull House
• Huntington Collis P. (1821–1900), railroad entrepreneur.
• Hutcheson William (1874–1953), labor leader.
• Hydroelectric Power
• I
• Immigration
• Immigration-Restriction Laws
• Indentured Labor
• Industrial Democracy
• Industrial Design
• Industrialization and Deindustrialization
• Industrial Policy, Theory and Practice of
• Industrial Relations
• Industrial Research Laboratories
• Industrial Workers of the World
• Inflation and Deflation
• Institutional and Historical Economics
• Insull, Samuel (1859–1938), businessman and utilities-industry spokesman.
• Insurance
• Internal Improvements
• Internal Labor Markets
• International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees
• International Association of Machinists
• International Brotherhood of Teamsters
• International Confederation of Free Trade Unions
• International Labor Defense
• International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union and Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America
• International Monetary Fund
• International Unionism and International Solidarity
• Internet Commerce
• Interstate Commerce Commission
• Iron and Steel Industry
• J
• Jewish American Labor Movement
• Jewish Labor Committee
• Joint-Stock Companies
• Jones, Mary “Mother” (1837–1930), labor activist.
• Jungle, The
• K
• Keating–Owen Act
• Kelley Florence (1859–1932), social reformer.
• Keynesian Economics
• Knights of Labor
• Kuhn, Loeb & Co.
• L
• Labor and Anti-Communism
• Labor Conspiracy Law
• Labor Journalism
• Labor Leaders
• Labor Markets
• Labor Movement, Decline of the
• Labor Movements
• Labor Organizations, Pre–Civil War
• Labor Productivity Growth
• Labor Spies and Pinkertons
• Labor's Role in Politics
• Labor Unions
• La Follette's Seamen's Act
• Laissez-Faire and Classical Economics
• Landrum–Griffin Act
• Lasch, Christopher (1932–1994),
• Lawrence “Bread and Roses” Strike (1912)
• Lehman Brothers
• Lewis, John L. (1880–1969), labor leader.
• Little, Frank (1879–1917), labor leader and martyr.
• Little Red Songbook
• Little Steel Strike (1937)
• Livestock Industry
• Living-Wage Campaigns
• Lochner v. New York
• London Economic Conference (1933)
• Longshoremen and Longshoremen's Unions
• Long Swings and Cycles in Economic Growth
• Lowell System
• Ludlow Massacre
• Lumbering
• M
• Madar Olga (1915–1996), top-ranking officer and leader in the United Auto Workers (UAW).
• Mail-Order Houses
• Maritime Transport
• Marketing Cooperatives
• Marxian Economics
• Mass Marketing
• Mass Production
• Master and Servant Law
• Mayo, Elton, and Work Culture
• Mazzocchi, Anthony “Tony” (1926–2002), labor leader.
• MCCarthyism and Antilabor Action
• MCCormick Cyrus (1809–1884), inventor and manufacturer.
• MCDonald's
• MCGuire P. J. (1852–1906), labor leader.
• McNary–Haugen Bill
• Meany George (1894–1980), labor leader.
• Meatpacking and Meat-Processing Industry
• Mechanization of Agriculture
• Mellon Banks
• Memphis Sanitation Strike (1968)
• Mercantilism
• Merger Movement
• Mesabi Range and Michigan Hard-Rock Miners’ Strikes (1907–1916)
• Metal Smelting and Refining
• Metal Trades
• Migratory Labor and Migrant Workers
• Military–Industrial Complex
• Mining Industry
• Minneapolis Teamsters and General Strike (1934)
• Molly Maguires
• Monetarism
• Monetary Policy, Federal
• Morgan, J. P. (1837–1913), banker, financier, and art patron.
• Motor Vehicles
• Muller V. Oregon
• Murray Philip (1886–1952), labor leader.
• Muste, A. J. (1885–1967), minister, pacifist, and political and labor activist.
• Mutual Funds and Retirement Accounts
• Volume 2: NAFT–YESH
• N
• Nafta
• National Association of Manufacturers
• National Banking System (1863)
• National Bureau of Economic Research
• National City Bank (Citibank)
• National Education Association
• National Farmers Union
• National Industrial Conference Board
• National Industrial Recovery Act and National Recovery Administration
• National Labor Relations Board
• National Labor Relations Board v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp.
• National Labor Relations (Wagner) Act
• National Labor Union
• National War Labor Board, World War I
• National War Labor Board, World War II
• Native Americans, Economic Aspects of U.S. Relations with
• Navigation Acts
• Neoclassical Economics
• Neoliberalism
• Neoliberalism as Public Economic Policy
• Nestor Agnes (1880–1948), labor leader and social reformer
• New Deal and Institutional Economics
• New Deal Banking Regulation
• New Deal Corporate Regulation
• New Frontier
• New Left Economics
• New York Stock Exchange
• New York Teachers’ Strike (1968)
• 9to5 and Women Office Workers
• Nixon's Economic Policies
• Norris–LaGuardia Act
• North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta)
• Northern Securities Case
• No-Strike Pledge, World War I and World War II
• Nuclear Power
• Nursing
• Nussbaum Karen (1950–), labor leader.
• O
• Occupational Diseases and Hazards
• Occupational Safety and Health Administration
• Office Technology
• Okun, Arthur, and Inequality
• Open-Shop Movement
• O'Sullivan, Mary Kenney (1864–1943), labor leader.
• P
• Parsons Albert (1848–1887), labor activist.
• Paterson Strike and Pageant
• Pensions, Civil War
• Perkins Frances (1880–1965), social worker and labor regulator.
• Petroleum Industry
• Pharmaceutical Industry
• Phillips Curve
• Pinkertons
• Plastics and Synthetics
• Poor People's Movement
• Postal Services
• Poverty
• Powderly Terence V. (1849–1924), labor leader.
• President's Mediation Commission (1917)
• Printing and Publishing
• Productivity
• Profits, Changes in Rates of
• Progressive Miners of America
• Proletarianization
• Public Land Policy
• Public Sector Unionism
• Public Utility Holding Company Act
• Public Works Administration
• Pullman Strike
• Pure Food and Drug Act
• Q
• Quill Michael (1905–1966), labor leader.
• R
• Racism
• Radicalism and Workers
• Radio
• Railroad Brotherhoods
• Railroad Labor Board
• Railroad Land Grants
• Railroads
• Railroad Strike (1877)
• Railway Labor Act
• Randolph, A. Philip (1889–1979), labor leader and civil rights activist.
• Rational Choice Theory
• Reaper
• Regulation of Labor and Labor Markets
• Renewable Energy and Climate Change
• Report on Manufactures
• Repression of Unions
• Reserve Army of Labor
• Resistance to Management
• Reuther Walter (1907–1970), labor leader.
• Right-to-Work Committees and Organizations, National
• Right-to-Work Committees and Organizations, State Laws Related to
• Rockefeller John D. (1839–1937), oil-industry leader and philanthropist.
• Rockefeller Plan, The
• Rohatyn Felix (1928–), investment banker and U.S. ambassador.
• Rule of Reason
• Rust Belt and Deindustrialization
• S
• Sacco and Vanzetti Case
• St. John, Vincent (1877–1929), labor leader.
• Salt of the Earth
• Samuelson Paul (1915–2009),
• Sandlot Riots and Anti-Chinese Movement
• San Francisco General Strike (1934)
• Satellite Communications
• Savings and Loan Debacle
• Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States
• Schneiderman Rose (1883–1972), labor and women's rights leader.
• Scientific Management
• Scottsboro Case
• Secretaries of Department of Labor
• Section 7(a)
• Securities and Exchange Commission
• Sedition and Espionage Acts
• Segmented Labor Markets, Primary and Secondary
• Service Employees International Union
• Sexism
• Shadow Banking System
• Shanker Albert (1928–1997), labor leader.
• Sharecropping and Tenancy
• Sherman Act
• Shipbuilding
• Shoe Industry
• Shopping Centers and Malls
• Simple Commodity Production
• Single-Tax Movement
• Slaughterhouse Cases
• Slavery
• Expansion of Slavery
• As a Labor System
• The Slave Trade
• Slavery and Capitalism
• Sloan Alfred P. (1875–1966), businessman and philanthropist.
• Socialism and American Exceptionalism
• Social Security Act
• Soldiering on the Job
• Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union
• Stagflation
• State Regulatory Laws
• Steam Power
• Steel Strike of 1919
• Stern Andy (1950–), labor leader.
• Stock and Commodity Exchanges
• Stock Market Crash of 1929
• Stretch-Out, Worker Resistance to
• Strikes
• An Overview
• Decline of Strikes
• Subsidies, Agricultural
• Sugarcane and Sugar Beets
• Sumner William G. (1840–1910), sociologist.
• Supply-Side Economics
• Sutton Crystal Lee (1940–2009),
• Sweeney John (1934–),
• Swift Gustavus (1839–1903),
• T
• Taft–Hartley Act
• Tariffs
• Taxation
• Taxes, Federal Income
• Taylor, F. W.
• Taylor Society
• Teamsters for a Democratic Union
• Teapot Dome Oil Scandal
• Technocracy
• Technology
• Technology and Labor
• Telegraph
• Telephone
• Television
• Temporary Assistance to Needy Families
• Temporary National Economic Committee
• Tennessee Valley Authority
• Textile Industry
• Textile Strike (1934)
• Textile Workers Union of America
• Theatrical Unions
• Title VII
• Tobacco Industry
• Tobacco Trade
• Tobin Dan (1875–1955), labor leader.
• Toledo Auto-Lite Strike
• Trade Policy, Federal
• Trade Union Educational League and Trade Union Unity League
• Transportation Revolution
• Transport Workers Union
• Trautmann William E. (1869–1940),
• Treaty of Detroit and Postwar Labor Accord
• Triangle Shirtwaist Company Fire
• Triangular Trade
• Trilateral Commission
• Truax v. Corrigan
• Trumka Richard (1949–), labor leader.
• Turnpikes and Early Roads
• U
• Undocumented Workers
• Unemployment
• Union Corruption
• Unionization Rates
• Union Reform Movements
• Union Shop
• United Auto Workers
• United Brewery Workers
• United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners
• United Electrical Workers
• United Farm Workers of America
• United Mine Workers
• United States v. E. C. Knight Co.
• United Steelworkers
• Uprising of 20,000
• Utopian and Communitarian Movements
• V
• Vagrancy and Workers
• Vanderbilt Cornelius (1794–1877), shipping and railroad tycoon and financier.
• Veblen Thorstein (1857–1929), sociologist, economist, and social critic.
• Vertical Integration, Economies of Scale, and Firm Size
• Volcker Paul (1927–), economist and chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1979 to 1987.
• Voluntarism
• W
• Wages, Real and Nominal
• Wal-Mart
• Walton, Sam (1918–1992), merchant and founder of Wal-Mart Stores.
• Wanamaker, John, and Wanamaker's
• Ward, Lester F. (1841–1913), sociologist.
• War Industries Board
• War Labor Boys
• Wartime Economic Regulation
• Water and Irrigation
• Watson, Thomas, Sr. (1874–1956), business executive, head of the International Business Machines Company (IBM).
• Webster, Milton (1887–1965), labor leader.
• Welfare Capitalism
• Welfare Reform
• Welfare State
• West Coast Hotel v. Parrish
• Western Federation of Miners
• Westinghouse, George (1846–1914), inventor and industrialist.
• Whitney, Eli (1765–1825), inventor and arms manufacturer.
• Wisconsin School of Economics
• Women's Trade Union League
• Women Workers
• Work
• Worker Colleges and Education
• Workers Defense League
• Workers’ Self-Management
• Worker Training
• Works Progress Administration
• World Bank
• World Federation of Trade Unions
• World Trade Organization (WTO)
• Wurf, Jerry (1919–1981), labor leader.
• Y
• Yazoo Land Fraud
• Yeoman Myth
• Yeshiva University, the NLRB, and Collective Bargaining