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Newspaper advertisement offering enslaved young men for hire.
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Slaves for Hire

On the phenomenon of “hiring out” enslaved persons prior to the Civil War, and how this introduced some slaves to the world of wages.
via BackStory on August 29, 2014
Dinkytown minimum wage march-Raise the minimum wage protesters at a McDonalds restaurant
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The Birth of the Minimum Wage

On the legal background to the federal minimum wage, established by the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.
via BackStory on August 29, 2014

Straight Razors and Social Justice: The Empowering Evolution of Black Barbershops

Black barbershops are a symbol of community, and they provide a window into our nation's complicated racial dynamics.
by Hunter Oatman-Stanford, Quincy Mills via Collectors Weekly on May 30, 2014
Magellan’s ship, the Victoria, in the Pacific Ocean on the map of the New World.

The Land Divided, The World United

Building the Panama Canal.
via Linda Hall Library on April 8, 2014
Cover of "Empire of Necessity" featuring a painting of violence being wrought on enslaved men.

The Bleached Bones of the Dead

What the modern world owes slavery. (It’s more than back wages).
by Greg Grandin via Tom Dispatch on February 23, 2014
Picture of William B. Shockley (1910-1989)

Indigenous Circuits

While researching the history of racism in Silicon Valley, Lisa Nakamura is surprised to discover the Navajo Nation's role in the creation of the tech industry.
by Lisa Nakamura via Computer History Museum on January 2, 2014

“Take Me Out to the Ball Game”: The Story of Katie Casey and Our National Pastime

The little-known story of one of the best known sing-along songs, and its connection to women's suffrage.
by George Boziwick via Our Game on October 8, 2013

A Filthy History: When New Yorkers Lived Knee-Deep in Trash

How garbage physically shaped the development of New York.
by Hunter Oatman-Stanford, Robin Nagle via Collectors Weekly on June 24, 2013
A photograph of a Pony Express employee riding a horse.
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Cowboys and Mailmen

Debunking myths about the Pony Express.
via BackStory on December 7, 2012

Lincoln and Marx

The transatlantic convergence of two revolutionaries.
by Robin Blackburn via Jacobin on August 28, 2012
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How Suffering Shaped Emancipation

Jim Downs discusses the plight of freed slaves during the Civil War and Reconstruction.
by Jim Downs, Robin Lindley via HNN on August 6, 2012

May Day's Radical History

The date of Occupy's strike has ties to the eight-hour day movement, immigrant workers and American anarchism.
by Jacob Remes via Salon on April 30, 2012

The Hidden History of ALEC and Prison Labor

Years after ALEC's Truth In Sentencing bills became law, its Prison Industries Act has quietly expanded prison labor nationwide.
by Mike Elk, Bob Sloan via The Nation on August 1, 2011

Objection

Clarence Darrow’s unfinished work.
by Jill Lepore via The New Yorker on May 23, 2011
Emma Goldman.

Emma Goldman’s “Anarchism Without Adjectives”

The writings of Emma Goldman entered the public domain. Here is an introduction to Goldman's life and her particular brand of anarchism.
by Kathy Ferguson via The Public Domain Review on January 12, 2011
Cubicles

The Moral Life of Cubicles

On the utopian origins of Dilbert's workspace.
by David Franz via The New Atlantis on December 1, 2008
Marine hospital

Sailors’ Health and National Wealth

That the federal government created this health care system for merchant mariners in the early American republic will surprise many.
by Gautham Rao via Commonplace on October 1, 2008
A collage graphic featuring the couple from "American Gothic" at a cookout.

Labor Day in America: Or, the Day That is Not in May

America’s ambivalence about labor is nothing new. In the colonial era the ruling class had nothing but contempt for anything that could be justly called "work."
by Edward G. Gray via Commonplace on October 1, 2006
A woman in a bathing suit cooling off from an open fire hydrant.

Arthur Miller on Sweltering Summers Before Air-Conditioning

The city in summer floated in a daze that moved otherwise sensible people to repeat endlessly the brainless greeting “Hot enough for ya?”
by Arthur A. Miller via The New Yorker on June 15, 1998
Portrait of Benjamin Franklin reading.

Benjamin Franklin’s Experiments

The mindset Franklin demonstrated in his scientific work helps us understand his political accomplishments.
by Ferdinand Mount via London Review of Books on November 27, 2025
In a cotton field at night, a Black man scouts with a lantern, while a black woman passes a book to two fleeing men.

The Black People Who Fled Slavery Had a Lot to Teach Their Northern Allies

Black-led vigilance committees not only protected and aided fugitives but also learned from the formerly enslaved as they built a movement pedagogy together.
by Jesse Olsavsky via Hammer & Hope on October 31, 2025

We Used to Read Things in This Country

Technology changes us—and it is currently changing us for the worse.
by Noah McCormack via The Baffler on October 27, 2025
Erie Canal, Lockport, New York, c.1855
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The Erie Canal at 200

Finished in October 1825, the Erie Canal connected increasingly specialized regions, altering the economic landscape of the northeast United States.
by Danny Robb, Roger Ransom, Justin Nordstrom, Donald F. Vitaliano, Carol Sheriff via JSTOR Daily on October 25, 2025
Diagram of a cotton gin

How Eli Whitney Single-handedly Started the Civil War . . . and Why That’s Not True

The real Whitney story is less grand than the legend, but more interesting and, ultimately, more edifying.
by Ariel Ron via Commonplace on October 14, 2025
Illustration of Karl Marx in front of map of the United States.

The Triumphs and Travails of American Marxism

Karl Marx never visited the United States, but he and his ideas left an imprint nonetheless.
by Robin Blackburn via The Nation on October 13, 2025
President Dwight D. Eisenhower meets with five national labor leaders.

American Labor’s Shameful History of Support for Zionism

The US labor movement has never been neutral: its union officialdom has a more-than-century-long history of allying with Zionism.
by Jeff Schuhrke via Jacobin on October 12, 2025
Cloverlick Freewill Baptist Church in Harlan County, KY.

For Many Miners, Religion and Labor Rights Have Long Been Connected in Coal Country

The retirement of United Mine Workers of America’s longtime president is a reminder that labor and religion have always been entangled in coal country.
by Richard J. Callahan, Jr. via The Conversation on October 7, 2025
Fugitives from slavery disembarking from a boat to waiting coaches.

The Underground Railroad’s Stealth Sailors

The web of Atlantic trading routes and solidarity among maritime workers meant a fugitive's chances of reaching freedom below deck were better than over land.
by Eric Foner via New York Review of Books on October 2, 2025
Apples on a branch of an apple tree.

To Understand America, Look to the Everyday Apple

The country is losing neighbourhood orchards—and a connection to its origins.
by Priyanka Kumar via The Walrus on September 27, 2025
First Houses public housing in New York.

Land Value Politics

What New York City can learn from its past about the potential for urban growth that is not hostage to the preferences of the largest private owners.
by Kim Phillips-Fein, Daniel Wortel-London via Phenomenal World on September 18, 2025
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