HIST339

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HIST339

American Intellectuals and Labor Reform, 1880s TO 1980s HIST339 FA

Next Offered in 9900 FA

For a century American intellectuals has been constantly involved with workers, unions, and labor relations. Originally, social workers and Protestant clergy led the way. This was 1886, after the Haymarket Affair when propertied people were afraid of revolution. A decade later, when the immediate threat had passed, many of the reformers had become sociology or economics professors, usually the latter. In the next generation all were professors or arbitrators. Indeed, by that time an entire "profession" of Industrial Relations had emerged, although it was acciompanied by another group of intellectuals who were highly critical of their work. With the exception of these critics, the intellectuals were deeply involved with labor issues on a day-to-day basis--meeting with employers and unionists to prevent or resolve strikes, counselling legislators on labor and social-welfare, serving on government boards trying to cope with unrest, teaching future labor, business, and government leaders both here and abroad, and theorizing on industrialization. When the third generation had finally succeeded in helping calm labor relations by the 1950s, the most ambitious of them went on to other problems confronting the nation, among them the 1960's campus rebellions. Some of these reformers became quite well known: Jane Addams, John R. Commons, Clark Kerr, Archibald Cox, and John Dunlop and one--George Shultz--was the major figure on the American side responsible for negotiating the end of the Cold War. This seminar of these intellectuals-turned-activists will combine intellectual, political, religious, and labor history in an examination of a century-long social-reform movement.

MAJOR READINGS

Richard T. Ely, THE LABOR MOVEMENT IN
AMERICA (1886).
Christopher Lasch, ed., THE SOCIAL THOUGHT OF JANE ADDAMS
(1965).
Dorothy Ross, THE ORIGINS OF AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE (1991),
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN R. COMMONS (1934).
Kathryn Kish Sklar, ed., THE SOCIAL SURVEY IN HISTORICAL
PERSPECTIVE, 1880-1940 (1991).
Donald Meyer, THE PROTESTANT SEARCH FOR POLITICAL REALITY.
John T. Dunlop, INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS SYSTEMS (1958, 1993).
Clark Kerr, THE USES OF THE UNIVERSITY (1963).
U.S. Departments of Labor and Commerce, FACT FINDING REPORT:
COMMISSION ON THE FUTURE OF WORKER-MANAGEMENT RELATIONS,
May, 1994.

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Several short (4-5 pp.) essays due before class discussion and one substantial research essay (approx. 15-20 pp.).

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS

Admission by interview. Unless preregistered students attend the first class meeting or communicate directly with the instructor prior to the first class, they will be dropped from the class list. NOTE: Students must still submit a completed Drop/Add form to the Registrar's Office.

COURSE FORMAT: Discussion Seminar

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UG Credit: 1.00 Gen Ed Area & Dept: SBS HIST

Prerequisites: None

Last Updated on MAR-03-1998

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