The life of union leader Samuel Gompers (1850-1924).

This is the official website of the Washington D.C. branch of the AFL-CIO labor union. Read about the current events, programs it offers and other information.

A lengthy and detailed biography of Dolores Huerta who has spent her life championing the rights of farmworkers.

Original photographs highlight the General Strike of San Francisco in 1934.

[Free Registration/Login Required] Students read primary source documents to solve a problem surrounding a historical question. This document-based inquiry lesson allows students read parallel accounts of the Pullman Strike of 1894 from...

This tutorial looks at post-World War I America and the disturbing events that took place in 1919 and 1920, for example, racial discrimination, the KKK, backlash against immigrants, the Red Scare, etc. A PDF file of the tutorial is...

Newberry Library primary source materials for students studying the New Deal. Students examine New Deal programs and determine how people made sense of the new welfare program.

This collection uses primary sources to explore the Homestead Strike.

This practice exercise from Khan Academy covers Period 6: 1865-1898 in American History. The Gilded Age is reviewed in this resource. This resource is designed as a review for the AP US History Test.

Provides interesting facts and information about the 1935 Wagner Act (National Labor Relations Act), a New Deal reform that guaranteed workers the right to organize unions and to bargain collectively.

A PowerPoint presentation covering American history during the second Industrial Revolution. Learn the forces behind monopolies, the growth of cities, and the development of labor unions among other aspects of progression at this time in...

The Progressive Era from the 1890s to the 1920s evolved as a response to the negative effects of industrialization. Reforms that emerged provided protections for workers and consumers and gave women voting rights. Backlash against the...

While the explosion of industry had its positive marks on the economy, it also took its toll on some aspects of the nation. This slideshow will illustrate the problems and societal changes many farmers, immigrants, labor unions, and the...

Read a brief description of the Clayton Antitrust Act, which Samuel Gompers considered the Magna Carta of labor legislation.

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.

A brief biography of Lech Walesa and the independent labor movement in Poland. Describes how labor used strikes to improve their working conditions and qualities of life. Their struggles have been an inspiration to labor movements all...

This brief article describes the actions of the local steel unions in Cleveland in support of the national steel strike of 1919. Find out about the effect of the strike on the unions.

This site offers an abstract from Van Nostrand's Eclectic Engineering Magazine from 1870 from a paper by John R. Gilliss. A comprehensive look at the tunnels built along the route of the Central Pacific Railroad and the Union Pacific...

Read about the growth of the Socialist Party in America under the leadership of Eugene V. Debs. Find out about the strikes he led, his political activities, and his arrest for sedition in 1918. Read also about the radical union,...

This resource provides information about the first transcontinental railroad, which was built by nearly 30,000 Irish, German, Italian, and Chinese laborers.

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.

A brief look at the steel workers' strike against the steel producers in Ohio. Read how the strike progressed, and how it was eventually resolved.

A very brief description of the Industrial Workers of the World and what they represented.

Read how the Great Railroad Strike started and why federal troops were called in to control the strikers.