Other
Labor Arts: Solidarity Forever: A Look at Wobbly Culture
An excellent collection of artifacts that highlight the aims and aspirations of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Members of the IWW, known as Wobblies, played a unique role in the American labor movement. Artifacts include...
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Gilder Lehrman Institute: History Now: Celebrating Labor Day
[Free Registration/Login Required] A high school lesson plan using two primary source quotes to determine if working conditions have improved in the last 100 years.
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: Fdr's Alphabet Soup
Amazing number of agencies formed as a result of New Deal legislation. Read about the agencies and legislation whose acronyms have become part of governmental history.
Stanford University
Sheg: Document Based History: Reading Like a Historian: Pullman Strike
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students read primary source documents to solve a problem surrounding a historical question. This document-based inquiry lesson plan allows students read parallel accounts of the Pullman Strike of 1894...
ClassFlow
Class Flow: Labor Unions and Strikes
[Free Registration/Login Required] This flipchart focuses on the Haymarket Riot, the Homestead Strike, and the Pullman Strike.
Digital History
Digital History: Labor Protests
A sure sign that manufacturing was moving from the home to the factory was the organization of skilled workers to protest wage reductions and working conditions. Read about the tension between these skilled workers and their employers as...
Other
Iww: The Basic Labor Laws: The Norris La Guardia Act (1932)
A short history of the Norris-LaGuardia Act with respect to labor history.
University of Groningen
American History: Outlines: The Struggles of Labor
Outline of the struggles, conflict and violence experienced by 19th Century industrial workers.
Ohio State University
E History: Labor Management Conflict
History of the labor/management conflicts that occurred around the country at the beginning of the 20th century. Click on each of the links to get information about each of the conflicts.
Other
Irc History: The Ludlow Massacre
A good explanation of the Ludlow Massacre in the coalfields of Colorado and what led up to it. In addition, there is an interesting description of how this violent reaction to a strike by miners affected John D. Rockefeller, Jr., one of...
Digital History
Digital History: National Recovery Administration
Resource provides an overview of the codes set by the National Recovery Administration that helped industry and labor in the 1930s and their positive and negative affects.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Ap Us History: 1890 1945: The Age of Empire: Muckrakers
Discusses the muckraking journalists and novelists who were at the forefront of movements pushing for stronger protections for workers and consumers. Their work led to the passage of several important pieces of legislation. Includes...
University of Houston
University of Houston: An American Industrial Revolution Unit: Rise of Labor
Students learn about the history of the labor movement in Industrial America, including some of the major unions that emerged and the most well-known strikes. Next, they make connections to the role of unions today. They then work in...
University of Groningen
American History: Essays: The Iron Horse: The Railroad Unions
From a lengthy essay on the history of the railroad in the United States. This section lists a number of the railroad unions that formed in the latter half of the 19th century, and what they stood for.
Other
Nysed: The Great Railroad Strike of 1877
This very complete lesson plan from the New York State Library uses newspaper accounts to give a "you are there" feeling to the discussion of the Railroad Strike of 1877. Included are a history of the strike, student activities,...
Curated OER
History Matters:"rock Springs Is Killed":white Reaction to the Rock Springs Riot
Read an article from the Rock Springs Independent railng against the return of the Chinese coal miners the day after the Rock Springs Massacre that resulted in the death of several Chinese laborers.
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: Biography of America: Capital and Labor
This thirty-minute video, the seventeenth in a series on American history, examines the rocky relationship between labor, management, and industry from 1882 to 1901. You can also read the transcript, find a map of the Anthracite Strike,...
Curated OER
History Matters: Welfare Capitalism and Its Conceits.
Examine this political cartoon that looks at welfare capitalism and how companies used it to keep workers from establishing unions.
Ohio History Central
Ohio History Central: Terence Powderly
A brief biography of Terence Powderly, formative leader of the Knights of Labor, as well as an official in the Bureau of Immigration.
Ohio History Central
Ohio History Central: Great Steel Strike of 1919
Ohio History Central gives a brief summary of the Great Steel Strike of 1919, an attempt by steel workers to get higher pay and a shorter work day. Find out the results of the strike.
Other
United Mine Workers of America: Umwa History: Cio
Here's a brief history of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, the brainchild of John L. Lewis. Read about why he thought it was important for several unions to join together to press their ideas.
University of California
History Project: The Pullman Strike of 1894
Given background information and primary source documents, students will write an essay describing the events of the Pullman Strike of 1894 organized around a theme.
University of California
History Project: The Homestead Strike of 1892
This high school activity focuses on the Homestead Strike of 1892. Students are asked to write an essay explaining why the strike occurred and how the Carnegie Company went about winning the strike. Included are twenty-seven primary...
Digital History
Digital History: Haymarket Square Riot
A description of the Haymarket Square riot and its cause. Find quotes from the Chicago Tribune which called the protesters insurrectionists, and two Illinois governors who doubted the guilt of those rounded up, charged, and convicted of...