PG 391 | Labor and the Making of the American State

What is meaningful work? The vast majority of the human population will spend the bulk of their waking hours in the workplace; how do we begin to interrogate and evaluate the purpose and meaning of our own work while also attending to the historical struggle for labor’s recognition? The primary objectives in this course will be to historicize and normatively evaluate the struggle of various historical labor movements and their impact on the making of the American political state. Students will develop a nuanced and robust body of knowledge that critically interrogates the battles to protect workers with a particular eye towards building intersectional solidarity among the working class. Only by understanding how these historical labor movements coalesce and help form our contemporary landscape of work can we begin to normatively evaluate and postulate greater forms of liberation.