The history of unemployment and concepts surrounding it remain a mystery to many Americans. Frank Stricker believes we need to understand this essential thread in our shared past. American Unemployment is an introduction for everyone that takes aim at misinformation, willful deceptions, and popular myths to set the record straight: Workers do ......
The Illusion of Dream Jobs in the Video Game Industry
A Precarious Game is an ethnographic examination of video game production. The developers that Ergin Bulut researched for almost three years in a medium-sized studio in the U.S. loved making video games that millions play. Only some, however, can enjoy this dream job, which can be precarious and alienating for many others. That is, the passion of ......
The history of unemployment and concepts surrounding it remain a mystery to many Americans. This introduction takes an aim at misinformation, willful deceptions, and popular myths to set the record straight, providing a roadmap to better jobs and economic security.
Corporate Paternalism and African Professionalism on the Mines of Colonial Angola, 1917-1975
Diamonds in the Rough explores the lives of African laborers on Angola's diamond mines from the commencement of operations in 1917 to the colony's independence from Portugal in 1975. The mines were owned and operated by the Diamond Company of Angola, or Diamang, which enjoyed exclusive mining and labor concessions granted by the colonial ......
Clinton Jencks and Mexican-American Unionism in the American Southwest
The first comprehensive biography of progressive labour organizer, peace worker, and economist Clinton Jencks (1918-2005), this book explores the life of one of the most important political and social activists to appear in the Southwestern United States in the twentieth century. A key figure in the radical International Union of Mine, Mill, and ......
What is work? Is it simply a burden to be tolerated or something more meaningful to one's sense of identity and self-worth? And why does it matter? In a uniquely thought-provoking book, John W. Budd presents ten historical and contemporary views of work from across the social sciences and humanities. By uncovering the diverse ways in which we ......
St. Louis Typefounders Respond to Industrialization
In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, type for newspapers and books was set one letter at a time, and the manufacturers of the metal type used in the printing trade were called typefounders. This prominent yet rarely documented industry was essential to the development of modern American publishing and was particularly prevalent in St. ......
The Working Class, the Environment, and the Bonds of Place
Protecting communities and nature in an industrial region. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, communities in the Downriver region of the Detroit River have forged an enduring claim to the wellbeing of waterways that are central to where they live, work, and play. Lisa M. Fine examines important moments in the ongoing efforts of the ......
A Study of Racial Policies in the Railroad, Airline, Trucking, and Urban Transit Industries
The authors examine both past and current practices and policies influencing black employment in the railroad, airline, trucking, and urban transit industries. Technological unemployment, declining traffic, and discrimination by unions, carriers, and government agencies have reduced both the number and proportion of blacks in the railroad ......