American Labor Author:Henry Pelling This highly readable and authoritative history of labor in the United States examines three hundred years of Americans at work and attempts to discover what is uniquely "American" about our labor experience and why that experience has been woven inseparably into the whole story of American civilization. — From the days when bonded servants and fr... more »ee craftsmen helped settle the Colonies, through the turning point of post-Civil War industrialization, past all the crucial stages of labor unionism up to the present [1960], American workers have been united in a seemingly irresistible quest for an American standard of living.
"As good a brief summary of the history of American labor as one could wish for.... The volume's primary virtue is its literary quality. Both in organization and in expression, it is superior." -- John Philip Hall, American Historical Review« less