Overview

Reference Works

Labor Organization Publications

Unpublished Materials

Finding Primary and Secondary Sources

Labor historians make use of both primary sources (materials created during the time period being studied, or at a later date by a direct participant) as well as secondary sources (materials created after the event by an observer, often scholarly). You can learn about strategies for locating primary sources in Finding Primary Sources and Primary Sources on the Web. This page lists some key printed reference works and key sources that can be useful starting points. To find more primary and secondary sources, search Pathfinder, UC Berkeley's online catalog, or ask a reference librarian.

Periodical Indexes

Online index are included in Electronic Resources for Labor History. In addition, these are some major print indexes for older labor history materials.

Index to Labor Articles. Rand School of Social Science. Dept. of Labor Research.
Bus&Econ H101 .R3 BOUND 1(Dec 1926)-16:1/2(Jan/Feb1942), 16:5(May 1942)-27(1953)//

The Michigan Index to Labor Union Periodicals
Main Stack HD6350.A1U55 Bound 1960-Feb 1969.

Labor-personnel index. Detroit : Information Service, Inc., 1950-1958.
Continued by: Employment relations abstracts
Bus & Econ HF5549.A1.L3 Library has: BOUND 1950-1958//

Employment relations abstracts. Detroit : Information Service, Inc., c1959-1972.
Bus & Econ HF5549.A1.L3 Library has: BOUND 1959-1972//
IIRL HF5549.A1.L3

Work related abstracts. Detroit, Mich. : Information Coordinators, c1973-1996.
Bus&Econ HF5549.A1 L3 BOUND 1973-1993.
IIRL HF5549.A1 L3

Print bibliographies

McBrearty, James C. American labor history and comparative labor movements; a selected bibliography. Tucson, Ariz., University of Arizona Press [1973].

Doe Refe HD8066.A12 M3
Main HD8066.A12 M17
Ethnic Studies HD8066.A12.M17
IIRL HD6476.A12 .M3 Reference

Neufeld, Maurice F. American working class history : a representative bibliography. New York : Bowker, 1983.

Doe Refe HD8066.A12.N49 1983;
Bus & Econ HD8066.A12.N49 1983
IIRL HD6961.A12.N48 Reference

Slobodek, Mitchell. A selective bibliography of California labor history. Los Angeles : Institute of Industrial Relations, University of California, 1964.

Doe Refe HD8083.C2A12 S58
IIRL HD8083.C2 S6
Bancroft Z7164.L1 S5
BioSci HD8083.C2 S5
Main Stack HD8083.C2.S5 NRLF #: B 3 938 858

Soltow, Martha Jane and Mary K. Wery. American women and the labor movement, 1825-1974: an annotated bibliography. 2d ed. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1976.

Doe Refe HD6079.2.U5A12.S6
Main Stack HD6079.2.U5A12.S6
Bus & Econ HD6079.2.U5A12.S6
IIRL HD6079.2.U5.S64 Reference

Stern, Robert N., et al. The U.S. labor movement: references and resources. New York: G.K. Hall; London: Prentice Hall International, c1996.

Doe Refe HD8066.A12.S74 1996
Main Stack HD8066.A12.S74 1996

Encyclopedias, Dictionaries and Handbooks

Doe Refe HD5324.L32 1990
Bus & Econ HD5324.L32 1990 Reference

Historical dictionary of organized labor. Docherty, J. C. Lanham, Md. : Scarecrow Press, 1996.

Doe Refe HD4839.D58 1996

Historical encyclopedia of American labor. Ed by Robert Weir and James P. Hanlan. Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, 2004.

Doe Refe HD8066.H57 2004 Non-circulating.
Moffitt Refe HD8066.H57 2004

Labor unions. Ed. by Gary M. Fink. Westport, Conn.:Greenwood Press, 1977.

Doe Refe HD6508.L2341
Bus & Econ HD6508.L2341
IIRL HD6508.F52 Reference

Profiles of American labor unions. Ed. by Craft, Donna. Peck, Terrance W. 2nd ed. Detroit : Gale Research Inc., c1998.

Doe Refe HD6504; .P64 1998
IIRL HD6504; .P64 1998

 

St. James encyclopedia of labor history worldwide: major events in labor history and their impact. Neil Schlager, editor. Detroit : St. James Press/Thomson Gale, 2004.

Doe Refe HD4839.S74 2004

Film and Video

UC Berkeley's Media Center list of labor film and video

Amott, Teresa L. and Julie A. Matthaei. Race, gender and work: A multicultural economic history of women in the United States. Boston: South End Press, 1991.

Main Stack HQ1410.A46 1996
Moffitt HQ1410.A46 1996 Shelved in Main Stack, Level D West
Anthropology HQ1410.A46 1991
Soc Welfare HQ1410.A46 1991 DESK
IIRL HQ1410.A46 1991
Compar Ethn HQ1410.A46 1991 Housed at Ethnic Studies Library.

• Sourcebook of statistics and hard-to-find primary materials.

The Black worker: a documentary history from colonial times to the present. Edited by Philip S. Foner and Ronald L. Lewis. 7 vols. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, c1978-1983.

Main Stack E185.B59
Moffitt E185.B59 Shelved in Main Stack, Level D West
IIRL E185.F6

• Extensive compilation of primary source documents in African American labor history.

Commons, John Rogers, 1862-1945. History of labour in the United States. 4 vols. New York, The Macmillan Company, 1918, and 1935-36 Reprinted New York, A. M. Kelley, 1966.

Grad Svcs HD8066.C7 1966 Shelved: Non-Circulating Collection
Main Stack HD8066.C7 (more than one copy of some volumes)
Moffitt HD8066.C7 1935 Shelved in Main Stack, Level D West,
IIRL HD8066.C7

• Covers colonial times to the early 1930s. A detailed listing of events, people, organizations up to 1932, with good indexing.

Cross, Ira B. A history of the labor movement in California. Berkeley, Calif., University of California Press, 1935.

Bus & Econ HD8083.C2.C7
Asian Amer HD8072.5.C75 Spec. Coll. Housed at Ethnic Studies Library.
Moffitt HD8083.C2.C7. Shelved in Main Stack, Level D West

• Early California labor history, including extensive notes and a collection of source clippings. Ira B. Cross' personal papers are located in The Bancroft Library.

Foner, Philip Sheldon. History of the labor movement in the United States. 9 vols. New York : International Publishers, c1947-1991.

Main Stack HD6508; .F57 v.[1]-9 (1947-c1991)
Bus & Econ HD6508; .F57 v. 1-5
Moffitt HD6508; .F57 v.1-9 (1947-1982) *cmore than one copy of some volumes
IIRL HD6508; .F57
Asian Amer HD6508; .F57 v.1-6 (1972-1982) Housed at Ethnic Studies Library.

• Covers colonial times to the mid-1920s; detailed and comprehensive.

Foner, Philip Sheldon. Women and the American labor movement : from the first trade unions to the present. New York : London : Free Press ; Collier Macmillan, c1982

IIRL HD6079.2.U5 F652 1982

• Supplements Foner's general history. Lengthy bibliography.

Gordon, David M., Richard Edwards, and Michael Reich. Segmented work, divided workers: The historical transformation of labor in the United States. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1982.

Environ Dsgn HD8066.G65
Main Stack HD8066.G65
Bus & Econ HD8066.G65
Moffitt HD8066.G65 Shelved in Main Stack, Level D West
IIRL HD8066.G65

• Key work by UC Berkeley Economics faculty. Focuses labor segmentation and class structure, rather than the institutional history of organizations. Rich in statistical data.

Gutman, Herbert. Work, culture and society in industrializing America: Essays in American working-class and social history. New York: Knofp, 1976.

Main Stack HD8072.G981
Bus & Econ HD8072.G981
Moffitt HD8072.G98 Shelved in Main Stack, Level D West
IIRL HD8072.G98
Environ Dsgn HD8072.G98 1977

• Seminal work in shifting emphasis from the history of labor unions to the broader history of workers in society.

Kelley, Robin D. G. Race rebels: Culture, politics, and the Black working class. New York: Free Press, 1994.

Main Stack E185.61.K356 1994
Moffitt E185.61.K356 1994 Shelved in Main Stack, Level D West
Compar Ethn E185.61.K356 1996 Housed at Ethnic Studies Library.

• Influential work on race, ethnicity and labor.

Kwong, Peter. Forbidden workers: Illegal Chinese Immigrants and American labor. New York: The New Press, 1997.

Moffitt HD8081.C5.K85 1997 Shelved in Main Stack, Level D West
Asian Amer JV6507.C5.K92 Housed at Ethnic Studies Library.

• Key work on immigrant labor, racism and trade unions.

Moody, Kim. An injury to all: The decline of American unionism. London, New York: Verso, 1988.

Main Stack HD6508.M68 1988
Moffitt HD6508.M68 1988 Shelved in Main Stack, Level D West
IIRL HD6508.M68

• Overview of the 1960s-1980s labor movement. Many primary sources cited.

Roediger, David R. The wages of whiteness: Race and the making of the American working class. London; New York: Verson, 1991.

Main Stack HD4903.5.U58.R64 1991
Moffitt HD4903.5.U58.R64 1991

• Influential work on race and the US working class.

Saxton, Alexander. The indispensable enemy: labor and the anti-Chinese movement in California. Berkeley, University of California Press, 1967, 1971.

Moffitt HD8081.C5.S3 Shelved in Main Stack, Level D West
Main Stack HD8081.C5.S3 1971
Bus & Econ HD8081.C5.S3 1971
Soc Welfare HD8081.C5.S31
Bancroft F862.6.S26 1971 Non-circulating; may be used only in The Bancroft Library
IIRL HD8081.C5.S3
Asian Amer HD8081.C5.S3; HD8081.C5.S39.Housed at Ethnic Studies Library

• On race and labor in California during 19th and early 20th centuries, with many references to primary sources.

Who built America ? : working people and the nation's economy, politics, culture, and society. Ed by the American Social History Project.

Main Stack HD8066.W47 2000 v.1-2
MAIN: HD8066 .W47 1990
MOFF: HD8066 .W47 1990

• Overview of working peoples' history from 1877 to the present, including comprehensive bibliography. Also available as a CDROM at Moffitt's AVMC: COMPU/D 254.

Women, work, and protest: a century of US women's labor history. Ed. by Ruth Milkman. Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985.

Moffitt HD6079.2.U5.W66 1985 Shelved in Main Stack, Level D West
Bus & Econ HD6079.2.U5.W661 1985
IIRL HD6079.2.U5.W66

• Overview of women's labor history.

"We Are All Leaders": The alternative unionism of the early 1930s. Ed. by Staughton Lynd. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1996.

Main Stack HD6508.W344 1996
IIRL HD6508.W344 1996

• Covers non-AFL unions neglected by others.

Work engendered: toward a new history of American labor. Edited by Ava Baron. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991.

Main Stack HD6060.65.U5.W67 1991
Moffitt HD6060.65.U5.W67 1991 Shelved in Main Stack, Level D West

• Important anthology of feminist labor history perspectives, rich in sources and leads from the 18th to the early 20th centuries.

 

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