Read our collection of reviews on books that focus on women, labor, and the workforce.
- Annie Shapiro and the Clothing Workers’ Strike
Annie, as she was known to her co-workers at a men’s clothing company, was a 12-year-old Russian Jewish immigrant when she had been forced by her mother’s illness to leave school to go to work to help support her family. - Working Without Uniforms: School Nursing In Chicago 1951 – 2001
Helen Ramirez–Odell has written a book containing 86 stories, brief and extended, based on interviews of Chicago school nurses, going back to the beginning of the program in 1951. - Exploring the Dangerous Trades: The Autobiography of Alice Hamilton, M.D.
Dr. Alice Hamilton wanted to take on the problem of industrial poisoning. When she began her work in the new field of industrial toxicology, few worried about chemical hazards at work. Many victims were recent immigrants afraid to complain. Most did not know the risks. - Black Freedom Fighters in Steel: The Struggle for Democratic Unionism
Thousands of African Americans poured into northwest Indiana in the 1920s dreaming of decent-paying jobs and a life without Klansmen, chain gangs, and cotton. This work adds a new dimension to the literature on race and labor. - Class Action: The Story of Lois Jenson and the Landmark Case That Changed Sexual Harassment Law
This is the story of a small group of women iron miners who took on a Minnesota mining company in a landmark civil suit: Jensen vs. Eveleth Mines. - Near West Side Stories: Struggles for Community in Chicago’s Maxwell Street Neighborhood
Carolyn Eastwood tells the stories of three people living in Chicago with immigrant roots. - The Heat: Steelworker Lives & Legends
Harmon Lisnow knew that writing was not the typical pursuit of a steelworker when he invited 25,000 steelworkers of northwestern Indiana to “tell their stories” for a possible book on life in the mills. - Labor Pains: Inside America’s New Union Movement
Erem has worked in the union movement for the past dozen years as an organizer, a union rep, and a communications director. Her book is an account of the struggle to re-build a vibrant and powerful trade union movement. - Taking Back Our Lives: A Call to Action for the Feminist Movement
This book examines the ongoing threat and reality of violence in its many forms and how that violence distorts and disfigures women’s lives. - Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America
Ehrenreich in this book calls attention to the millions of Americans working full-time, year-round, for poverty-level wages. - Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality For All
In her new book, Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University and President of the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians, Martha S. Jones dives into her family history and the history of the United States through the eyes of Black women.