Shift Happens: The History of Labor in the United States
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- Pre-Order
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- Expected Jun 4, 2024
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- $12.99
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- Pre-Order
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
For readers of Stamped and An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States for Young People, Albert J. Mann’s Shift Happens: The History of Labor in the United States is an accessible and comprehensive YA history of the way the labor movement has shaped America and how it intersects with many of the major issues facing modern teens.
“Mann explores the often oppressive, abusive, and bloody history of labor conditions and the merciless rise of capitalism with wit, snark, and comprehensive context.... Riveting, enlightening, infuriating, and timely: compulsory reading.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Its edgy title may attract attention, but it’s the compelling narrative and enlightening content that will keep readers engaged from cover to cover." --SLJ (starred review)
“Mann’s introduction to the history of labor is full of sharp, galvanizing points that will keep readers engaged and help them look critically at some of our entrenched systems.” —ALA Booklist
“The narrative’s laser focus on organizing heroes and essential employees, and the power of unions and striking workers to enact change, results in powerful storytelling.” —Publishers Weekly
You need to work to live.
That’s the truth for most people, and plenty of people in power have been abusing that truth for centuries.
Long before the first labor unions were formed, workers still knew what exploitation looked like. It looked like the enslavement of Black people. It looked like generations of children dying in dangerous jobs. It looked like wealthy people hiring private militaries to attack their employees.
But workers have always found a way to fight back. Lokono tribespeople resisted Columbus and his colonizers. Enslaved people led walkouts and rebellions. Textile workers demanded a wage that would let them have fun, not just survive. Miners died for the right to unionize. From 30,000 young seamstresses striking in the early 1900s to Uber drivers organizing for change today, people have learned we’re stronger when we are united.
Shift Happens is a smart, funny, and engaging look at the history of the worker actions that brought us weekends, pay equality, desegregation, an end to child labor, and so much more.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this exhaustive work, Mann (The Degenerates) offers an absorbing look at labor in the U.S., focusing on essential workers and the gig economy. Chapters divided into eras based on changing political and labor practices begin with Christopher Columbus (1451–1506) and his violent tactics to secure resources in 1942, and conclude with the implications of Covid-19. The impact of major historical moments, including the Great Depression and the civil rights movement, is engagingly explored alongside clear definitions of economic theories and principles. Mann furthermore emphasizes the exploitation of racial and gender inequalities by highlighting the ways in which white privilege and government policies ensured the success of figures such as Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan, and John D. Rockefeller. Flippant phrasing ("God was super busy killing and maiming railroad men") is sometimes jarring, and more recent periods are less thoroughly examined than their predecessors. Still, the narrative's laser focus on organizing heroes and essential employees, and the power of unions and striking workers to enact change, results in powerful storytelling. Mann's use of quoted documents and speeches, as well as a comprehensive bibliography, reflects extensive research. Ages 13–up.