When the first colonists arrived in what would become the United States, they confronted the reality that in order to survive, they would have to tame the land and make it work for them. In addition to these early settlers were those brought to North America against their will-enslaved Africans who were forced to toil in intolerable conditions. From these beginnings developed the fabled Puritan work ethic that has become the standard for Americans in the workplace-a standard that has both proponents and opponents. The agrarian economy of the early United States was eventually transformed by the Industrial Revolution. Amid the new reality of mass-production, workers organized-demanding better wages, safer working environments, and an end to child labor. The unique challenges that African-American and female employees faced spawned separate movements that are still relevant in a less-than-equal workplace. The future direction of working in America is complicated, as technological innovation and globalization drastically transform both working conditions and the composition of the American workforce. Each chapter in Working in America, a volume in Facts On File's new American Experience series, begins with an essay that chronicles the experience of workers in the United States. A chronology of events follows this essay. Each chapter closes with a section of excerpts-from such sources as speeches, journals, correspondence, and book passages. Included in this book are the words of Thomas Jefferson, Malcolm X, Samuel Gompers, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Jesse Jackson, Cesar Chavez, Jane Addams, and countless others. An appendix of documents includes such primary source materials as the Land Ordinance of 1785, the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Also included are capsule biographies of 141 key figures, maps, graphs and tables, a glossary, notes, a bibliography, and an index. More than 100 black-and-white images illustrate the story of the workers whose contributions have helped shape the United States.
|
