In this, the first broad historical overview of labor in the United States in twenty years, Philip Nicholson examines anew the questions, the villains, the heroes, and the issues of work in America. Unlike recent books that have covered labor in the twentieth century, Labor's Story in the United States looks at the broad landscape of labor since before the Revolution. In clear, unpretentious language, Philip Yale Nicholson considers American labor history from the perspective of institutions and people: the rise of unions, the struggles over slavery, wages, and child labor, public and private responses to union organizing. Throughout, the book focuses on the integral relationship between the strength of labor and the growth of democracy, painting a vivid picture of the strength of labor movements and how they helped make the United States what it is today. Labor's Story in the United States will become an indispensable source for scholars and students.

Philip Yale Nicholson is Professor of History at Nassau Community College and Adjunct Professor at the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Long Island Extension. He is the author of Who Do We Think We Are? Race and Nation in the Modern World.

"We have long needed a lively and intelligent history of the labor movement in the United States, and Philip Yale Nicholson gives us just that. He provides a rich historical context, and a refreshing class consciousness. I believe this book will be invaluable in educating a new generation about a much neglected and crucial part of the nation's history."—Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States

"This is a wonderfully comprehensive narrative of American labor, full of insight and shrewd judgments. It will be exceedingly useful in the classroom."—Nelson Lichtenstein, University of California, Santa Barbara, and author of State of the Union: A Century of American Labor

"Nicholson's history of labor is the story of the evolving dynamics of democracy and equality, and it could serve as a general history of the United States from the bottom-up perspective.... Labor's Story in the United States is balanced, thoroughly supported, and accessible to an undergraduate or popular readership. Equally important, it is written by a scholar who cares about the people whose story he tells."—WorkingUSA