Work to Rule: American Labor between Emancipation and Empire
AMST 240
Spring 2026
| Section:
01
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Why have workers in the US fought to join labor unions and participate in collective workplace action when the boss invariably responds with intimidation, repression, and even violence? And how has collective worker power been leveraged both for and against American colonialism and imperialism? In this course we will explore the conflict between capital and labor in the US across diverse sites of struggle, including Southern slaves' "General Strike" during the Civil War, autoworkers' shop floor militancy during the Great Depression, challenges to organizing agricultural, domestic, and service labor, and recent union campaigns of athletes and academics. What does American labor's victories and defeats reveal about the relationship between capitalism, settler colonialism, neoliberalism, and empire? Considering the divisions of race, gender, and class, how have workers in the US enacted or failed to enact the famous International Workers of the World slogan "an injury to one is an injury to all"? |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS AMST |
| Course Format: Lecture | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (American Studies) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
: Tera Hunter, To Joy My Freedom: Southern Black Women¿s Lives and Labors after the Civil War
Barbara Kingsolver, Holding the Line: The Great Arizona Miners¿ Strike of 1983
WEB DuBois, Black Reconstruction
Nan Enstad, Ladies of Labor, Girls of Adventure: Working Women, Popular Culture, and Labor Politics at the Turn of the Twentieth Century
Jeff Schuhrke, Blue Collar Empire: The Untold Story of US Labor's Global Anticommunist Crusade
Mireya Loza, Defiant Braceros: How Migrant Workers Fought for Racial, Sexual, and Political Freedom
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Examinations and Assignments:
: class participation, short free-writes, mid-semester essay, final group project |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
: this course will count towards the junior colloquium requirement |
| Instructor(s): Woodsum,Antonina Griecci Times: ..T.R.. 10:20AM-11:40AM; Location: TBA |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 20 | | SR major: 5 | JR major: 5 | | |
| Seats Available: 20 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 2 | JR non-major: 2 | SO: 4 | FR: 2 |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 0 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
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