Books for International Workers’ Day

By Coll Rowe | April 30 2024 | Labor Studies

On May 1st we celebrate International Workers’ Day to acknowledge the battles workers have taken and gains that have come from their solidarity and persistence.

We have curated a book list of Labor Studies titles that you can share with your students.

Find more titles on U.S. Labor History here.

The Great Stewardess Rebellion
The Great Stewardess Rebellion
How Women Launched a Workplace Revolution at 30,000 Feet
Nell McShane Wulfhart
9780593082294
As flying boomed in the 1960s, women from across America applied for jobs as stewardesses. They were drawn to the promise of glamour, the chance to travel, and an alternative to traditional occupations like homemaking, nursing, and teaching. 
$17.00 US
Feb 28, 2023
Paperback
320 Pages
Anchor
"We Are All Fast-Food Workers Now"
"We Are All Fast-Food Workers Now"
The Global Uprising Against Poverty Wages
Annelise Orleck
9780807081778
The story of low-wage workers rising up around the world to demand respect and a living wage.
$18.00 US
Feb 27, 2018
Paperback
288 Pages
Beacon Press
Beaten Down, Worked Up
Beaten Down, Worked Up
The Past, Present, and Future of American Labor
Steven Greenhouse
9781101872796
From longtime New York Times labor correspondent, an in-depth and stirring look at working people in America, the challenges they face, and the ways in which they can be re-empowered.
$19.00 US
Jul 21, 2020
Paperback
416 Pages
Anchor
Sex Workers Unite
Sex Workers Unite
A History of the Movement from Stonewall to SlutWalk
Melinda Chateauvert
9780807061237

Documenting five decades of sex-worker activism, Sex Workers Unite is a fresh history that places prostitutes, hustlers, escorts, call girls, strippers, and porn stars in the center of America’s major civil rights struggles.

$22.00 US
Mar 10, 2015
Paperback
272 Pages
Beacon Press
The Death and Life of American Labor
The Death and Life of American Labor
Toward a New Workers' Movement
Stanley Aronowitz
9781784783006

Stanley Aronowitz draws on his long personal history in labor organizing and brings a historian’s understanding of American workers’ struggles in taking the long view of the labor movement.

$24.95 US
Sep 15, 2015
Paperback
192 Pages
Verso
Midnight in Vehicle City
Midnight in Vehicle City
General Motors, Flint, and the Strike That Created the Middle Class
Edward McClelland
9780807055489
In a time of great inequality and a gutted middle class, the dramatic story of “the strike heard around the world” is a testament to what workers can gain when they stand up for their rights.
$17.95 US
Feb 01, 2022
Paperback
232 Pages
Beacon Press
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Stewardesses Rebel! How the “mascots” of the labor movement became militant union leaders
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by Nell McShane Wulfhart Stewardesses aren’t the first workers that come to mind when you think of the labor movement. But behind that smiling, compliant, conventionally attractive image lies a group of militant unionists who led an unheralded workplace revolution that changed American history. In the beginning of the 1960s, the airplane cabin might have

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Labor Day is an annual celebration of the social and economic achievements of American workers. We remember workers who have organized and fought throughout the labor movement to give workers the protections they have today, and those who continue to fight for equal and fair labor. The following books offer history and analysis of the

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