Laboring for Freedom: New Look at the History of Labor in America: New Look at the History of Labor in America

This text examines the concept of freedom in the context of American labour history. Nine essays develop themes in this history which show that "liberty of contract" and "inalienable rights" form two contradictory traditions concerning freedom. Laboring for Freedom examines the concept of freedom in the context of American labor history. Nine chronological essays develop themes which show that "liberty of contract" and "inalienable rights" form two contradictory traditions concerning freedom: one tradition insists that liberty involves the expression of individual will with regard to one's property (i.e. one's labor); the second tradition holds that there are fundamental rights of man that must neither be taken away by the state nor surrendered by the individual. The tensions between these two concepts are traced in the book. Topics covered include republican independence, corporate paternalism, the compromises of collective bargaining, and human rights in a global economy. The book argues that ultimately freedom is best analyzed as a changing set of constraints, rather than an attainable ideal. "This text offers interpretation of American labor history that makes workers' unquenchable thirst for freedom its central theme. In doing so, it breaks free from standard treatises in which the issues of class conflict and American "exceptionalism" have been dominant."--BOOK JACKET. "This interdisciplinary narrative fleshes out the conditions under which workers have lived and labored. The author contends that labor protests against these conditions flow from an American tradition invoking the primacy of inalienable rights and that these protests clash with the equally American traditions asserting a nearly absolute liberty of individual contract."--Jacket