History 411

American Labor History

Spring 2008

Take Home Final

Answer one and only one of the following questions in at least 4 double-spaced.  Refer to specific facts you've learned over the course of this semester to support your points.  If you choose to quote or cite one of our textbooks, parenthetical references will serve as sufficient documentation.

1.  Workers and management are the primary parties in any labor conflict, but government also plays a role; either by picking a side, choosing not to pick a side or by setting the rules of engagement.  How has the changing role of government affected the course of American labor history?  When did government first become actively engaged in management-labor conflicts?  When and why has it switched sides?  What role does government play in present-day industrial relations?

2.  Explain the relationship between any of the contemporary issues we have discussed this semester and the problems that labor and the working class in the United States have faced in the past.  Have the subjects of the newspaper stories I’ve distributed or the short film clips I've shown developed beyond earlier issues or do the same issues keep repeating themselves?  Explain.

3.  Does the American working class have revolutionary potential?  Using your knowledge of American labor history, defend your position on this question.  Has it ever shown revolutionary potential in the past?  If so, why aren't we living in a socialist state?  If the American working class does not have revolutionary potential, why not?  What factors in the composition or attitudes of the American working class have limited that potential over the course of American labor history?

Jonathan Rees
Associate Professor of History
Colorado State University - Pueblo
2200 Bonforte Boulevard
Pueblo, CO 81001
(719) 549-2541

E-Mail: Jonathan [dot] Rees [at] colostate-pueblo [dot] edu

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