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Labor in America (338-0-20)

Instructors

Daniel Galvin
847 491 2641
601 University Place, 103 Scott Hall
Office Hours: http://www.polisci.northwestern.edu/people/core-faculty/daniel-galvin.html

Meeting Info

Scott Hall 212: Mon, Wed 3:30PM - 4:50PM

Overview of class

This advanced seminar examines the complex ways in which capitalism, law, politics, public policy, and issues of race, ethnicity, and gender have interacted to shape workers' rights and capacities to mobilize in collective action since the U.S. founding. Special attention is given to the dynamics of power in the workplace, slavery and its legacies, labor's orientation toward immigrants and immigration, the rise and fall of labor unions, the declining quality of low-wage work, and the emergence of new forms of labor organizing. In addition to political science, readings are drawn from history, philosophy, economics, industrial and labor relations, sociology, and legal studies.

Registration Requirements

Juniors & Seniors only

Learning Objectives

  1. Describe historical trends in work and in labor organizing in the United States;
  2. Analyze key political, economic, social, and legal factors that have shaped and constrained labor power in the U.S.;
  3. Interpret and critique prominent theories and ideologies pertaining to labor politics;
  4. Assess arguments about the impact of institutions (like slavery), policies (like immigration), and practices (like discrimination) on workers and workers' rights;
  5. evaluate arguments about the dynamics of power in the American workplace.

Teaching Method

Mix of seminar discussion and lecture

Evaluation Method

20% participation (speaking in class and daily response papers)
35% in-class blue-book midterm exam
45% in-person blue-book final exam

Class Materials (Required)

Steven Greenhouse, Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present, and Future of American Labor (Knopf, 2019). ISBN-13: ‎ 978-1101874431.
Nelson Lichtenstein, State of the Union: A Century of American Labor - Revised and Expanded Edition (Princeton University Press, 2013) ISBN-13: 978-0691160276. (Earlier edition is fine too.)

Class Attributes

Social and Behavioral Science Foundational Discipl
U.S. Perspectives on Power, Justice, and Equity
Social & Behavioral Sciences Distro Area