Why Teach Labor History?
Category: Featured Resources
National History Day Project
National History Day Gold Medal Prize ($1000)
ALSC Executive Director Paul F. Cole awards the 2009 NHD Gold Medal to Mark Castera for his paper on Samuel Gompers.
Featured Resources
Labor Heritage Foundation
Category: Featured Resources
A rich resource for books, DVDs, posters, buttons and other items about labor.
Labor Songs
Category: Featured Resources
Using Songs to Teach Labor History
The American labor movement has a long and rich heritage of song. Like hymns and patriotic songs, union songs are songs with a message. Thousands have been written by union members and others over the years. These men and women, black and white, native American and foreign born, created their own literature reflecting every aspect of life in the mines, mills, factories, shops and farms where they were forced to labor… Continue reading
Labor History Lesson Plans
Category: Featured Resources
Click here for a variety of labor history lesson plans including ‘United We Stand’ from the Library of Congress Continue reading
Boy Scout Labor Merit Badge
Category: Featured Resources
The American Labor Merit Badge was established by the Boy Scouts in 1987. For requirements and more. Continue reading
Wisconsin Teaching Labor History Law
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Wisconsin is implementing the nation’s first state law requiring the
teaching of labor history and collective bargaining. Continue reading
Quick Links – An Alphabetical Guide to All Web Site Resources
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Quick Links – An Alphabetical Guide to All Web Site Resources Continue reading
Labor History Links
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The most comprehensive bibliography of information, documents and links of U.S. labor history sites on the Internet by Rosemary Feurer for the Labor and Working Class History Association (LAWCHA). Continue reading
Hardball & Handshakes
Category: Featured Resources
Why Have Professional Atheletes Formed Unions? This instrutional unit uses the history of labor relations in major league baseball as a case study to probe this question. The American Labor Studies Center and the Baseball Hall of Fame have joined … Continue reading
The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively
Category: Featured Resources
The National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act) gives workers the right to form unions and bargain collectively. These classroom simulations offer a unique opportunity to explore how workers can exercise these rights.
For more information:
Linda Tubach Ltubach.cbedproject@yahoo.com Continue reading
Labor Rights as Human Rights
Category: Featured Resources
There is currently a great debate in the United States on the issue of the rights of workers in both the public and private sectors to organize and bargain collectively. Missing from the current national debate is the issue of whether the rights of workers are considered fundamental human rights as articulated in a number of universally accepted documents.
Click here for a number of excellent resources for teachers and students on the topic. Continue reading
The American Labor Studies Center (ALSC) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization whose mission is to create, collect and disseminate labor history and labor studies curriculum materials and resources to K-12 teachers nationwide through this web site and via conferences, workshops, seminars and exhibits and to restore the Kate Mullany National Historic Site in Troy, New York where it is located. Paul F. Cole is the Executive Director.
Labor Spotlight
American Labor and U.S. History Textbooks: How Labor’s Story is Distorted in High School History Textbooks
“Imagine opening a high school U.S. history textbook and finding no mention of —or at most a passing sentence about—Valley Forge, the Missouri Compromise, or the League of Nations…” Continue reading
Resources for teachers who have a limited amount of time to incorporate labor history into their classrooms.
- A Short History of American Labor
- The Lesson Plan
- The Films
Traces the history of the labor movement from its beginnings to the late 20th century.
A lesson guide for teachers to accompany "A Short History of American Labor"
A description and order information for two excellent labor history films to supplement "A Short History of American Labor" - If You Don't Come in on Sunday, Don't Come in on Monday and The Inheritance
Kate Mullany National Historic Site
Home of the American Labor Studies Center
The Bread & Roses Strike
The 100th Anniversary of the Great Lawrence Strike of 1912, popularly referred to as the Bread & Roses Strike, begins January 2012.