Looking for recommendations for layperson-friendly books on the history of industrial labour movements

by Algermemnon

As per the title. Particularly interested in labour movements in the USA, as well as perhaps books that explore specific incidents in more detail (Haymarket Bombing, Sacco & Vanzetti, etc) - but any recommendations are welcome.

sunagainstgold

Last year Erik Loomis, a professor of labor history at Rhode Island, wrote up a list of ten beginner-level industrial history books:

  • Melvyn Dubofsky, We Shall Be All: A History of the Industrial Workers of the World
  • Joseph McCartin, Collision Course: Ronald Reagan, the Air Traffic Controllers, and the Strike that Changed America
  • Kathleen Barry, Femininity in Flight: A History of Flight Attendants
  • Jefferson Cowie, Capital Moves: RCA’s Seventy-Year Quest for Cheap Labor
  • Matt Garcia, From the Jaws of Victory: The Triumph and Tragedy of Cesar Chavez and the Farm Worker Movement
  • James Green, The Devil Is Here In These Hills: West Virginia’s Coal Miners and Their Battle for Freedom
  • Bethany Moreton, To Serve God and Wal-Mart: The Making of Christian Free Enterprise
  • Frederick Douglass, The Autobiography of Frederick Douglass
  • Barbara Ehrenreich, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
  • Jack Metzgar, Striking Steel: Solidarity Remembered

I've read Barry and Green (also Douglass and Ehrenreich, although the former might not be what you're looking for here and the latter isn't as much "history"), and would recommend both!