History of Work in America since 1877
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Library Resources
Finding Books | Reference Books | Statistical Sources | Finding Articles | Policy & Position Papers | Historical Resources | Archives & Special Collections | Citing Your Sources
Finding Books and Other Materials in the Library on Work in America
The CAT
The primary resource for locating books and research materials in the University Libraries is The CAT. To search the CAT effectively by keyword, use the Advanced Search page (the button is in the upper right quadrant of the screen). To do an effective topic search —
- Use keywords such as labor, labor unions, labor movement, industrial relations, blue collar workers, etc.
- Limit by country's name (i.e., America or United States)
- Find one or two records that are on target
- Use the subjects on those records to refine your search. Among the many subject headings used, the following will give an idea of the types of resources that will be used in the CAT for items on American Labor:
- Labor - United States - History
- Working Class - United States
- Labor Unions - United States
- Labor Movement - United States
- Labor Laws & Legislation - United States
- Employee Rights - United States
- Labor Unions Organizing
- Labor Movement - History
- Labor Unions - History
- Industrial Relations - United States
- African American - Labor Union Members
- Women labor - union members - United States - History
- Strikes and lockouts - United States
- If your search results are too large, use the limit button to refine your search by material type or date.
Please Note: Materials on labor, unions, work, etc., are split between the Arts & Humanities, Business, and Social Sciences Libraries' Stacks. Additional materials may be elsewhere.
| Subject | Call Number Range | Library Location |
|---|---|---|
| United States history | E 151-889 | Pattee Library Stacks, Level 1 |
| United States local history | F 1-975 | Pattee Library Stacks, Levels 1 & 1A |
| Social Sciences statistics | HA | 3rd Floor Paterno Library Stacks |
| Economics | HB-HC | 3rd Floor Paterno Library Stacks |
| Labor | HD | 3rd Floor Paterno Library Stacks |
| Commerce | HF | 3rd Floor Paterno Library Stacks |
| Sociology | HM | 2nd Floor Paterno Library Stacks |
| Social history | HN | 2nd Floor Paterno Library Stacks |
| Women | HQ | 2nd Floor Paterno Library Stacks |
| Secret societies | HS | 2nd Floor Paterno Library Stacks |
| Urban studies | HT | 2nd Floor Paterno Library Stacks |
| Social services | HV | 2nd Floor Paterno Library Stacks |
| Socialism, Communism, Anarchism | HX | 2nd Floor Paterno Library Stacks |
| Political Science | J | 2nd Floor Paterno Library Stacks |
Reference Books [Top]
Using Reference Books is often a good way to begin gathering information on your topic, especially if you are unfamiliar with it. The following are reference titles that might be helpful:
[online] Gale Virtual Reference Library
The ABC-CLIO Companion to the American Labor Movement
Encyclopedia of U.S. Labor and Working-Class History
Historical Encyclopedia of American Labor
Work in America : an Encyclopedia of History, Policy, and Society
Labor Conflict in the United States : An Encyclopedia
American Federation of Labor : History, Encyclopedia, Reference Book
American Decades
10 volumes - each volume has a section on business and economy
American Decades : Primary Sources
10 volumes - each volume has a section on business and economy
American Eras
Volume 8: "Development of the Industrial United States, 1878-1899" (pages 85-116)
Beacham's Encyclopedia of Social Change : America in the Twentieth Century
Volume 4: "Work and the Workplace" (pages 1857-1906)
Encyclopedia of American Social History
Volume II, part IX: "Work and Labor" (pages 1391-1588)
Encyclopedia of American Social Movements
Volume 2, part 4: "Labor Movement" (pages 455-692)
Working Americans, 1880-2005 (6 volumes)
Statistical Sources [Top]
Statistical Abstract of the United States
also available online
Historical Statistics of the United States, Earliest Times to the Present
also available online with a Penn State Access Account
Handbook of U.S. Labor Statistics : Employment, Earnings, Prices, Productivity, and Other Labor Data
U.S. Department of Labor
"The Department of Labor (DOL) fosters and promotes the welfare of the job seekers, wage earners, and retirees of the United States by improving their working conditions, advancing their opportunities for profitable employment, protecting their retirement and health care benefits, helping employers find workers, strengthening free collective bargaining, and tracking changes in employment, prices, and other national economic measurements."
National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
"The National Labor Relations Board is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1935 to administer the National Labor Relations Act, the primary law governing relations between unions and employers in the private sector."
Finding Articles [Top]
Magazines and Newspapers
ProQuest (newspapers, magazines, business)
ProQuest indexes more than 5,000 magazines, journals, and newspapers. It contains full text or images to over 2,000 journals, and full text to more than 150 newspapers.
LexisNexis Academic
Provides access to a wide range of news, business, legal, and reference information. Covers many news sources for 20 years. Court cases and statutes from all federal and state jurisdictions are included. Most resources can be searched in full text.
America's Historical Newspapers, 1690-1922
America's Historical Newspapers allows researchers to search more than 1,000 U.S. historical newspapers published between 1690 and 1922, including titles from all 50 states.
New York Times Historical
Includes a digitized image of every backfile issue of The New York Times from cover to cover, including news stories, editorials, photos, graphics, and advertisements. Coverage from 1851 [latest 3 years not available].
Academic Journal Articles
America : History and Life
America : History and Life includes about 400,000 annotated or abstracted references to American and Canadian history. Published since 1964, the database includes over 2,000 journals worldwide, including state and local historical journals as well as historical articles from hundreds of major humanities and social science journals. It also includes thousands of book and media reviews, citations to published books, and dissertations.
EconLit (economics)
International in scope, EconLit is an index to research in all aspects of economics from books, journals and dissertations. This is an enhanced version of the Journal of Economic Literature.
Sociological Abstracts
Index for English language journals in Sociology, Social Work, and other Social Sciences. Provides abstracts for articles and is international in scope.
Additional article databases
ABI/INFORM
A business-oriented article database for subjects such as advertising, marketing, company information, industry trends, human resources, economic policy, health care, consumer products and services.
CQ Researcher
Weekly "magazine" that explores in-depth a single "hot issue" currently being discussed in the news. Topics include social issues, politics, economics, the environment, education, science, and more. Each issue includes an essay outlining the issue, a pro-con feature, a chronology, and a bibliography.
Nation Digital Archive (1865- present)
Magazines for Libraries, (12th ed.) says of The Nation "Proud of being a 'wholly owned subsidiary of our own conscience' rather than a publication from a media conglomerate.... The writing is crisp and concise, a joy to read." The Nation serves as an important historical window on the United States--its policies, its people, and events.
Policy & Position Papers [Top]
Economic Policy Institute
"The Economic Policy Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank that seeks to broaden the public debate about strategies to achieve a prosperous and fair economy."
Moving Ideas (Electronic Policy Network)
"the one-stop home for nonprofits and progressives alike".
National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
"Founded in 1920, the National Bureau of Economic Research is a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization dedicated to promoting a greater understanding of how the economy works. The NBER is committed to undertaking and disseminating unbiased economic research among public policymakers, business professionals, and the academic community."
PolicyFile
Available to researchers with a Penn State Access Account, Policyfile draws its content from public policy think tanks, university research programs, research organizations and publishers.
Historical Resources (Microfilm) [Top]
Proceedings of the Constitutional Convention (United Steelworkers of America)
American labor unions' constitutions and proceedings : a guide to the microfilm edition
Archives & Special Collections [Top]
The Historical Collections and Labor Archives (HCLA) since 1958 has collected and cataloged a variety of primary sources on Pennsylvania and U.S. industrial society. HCLA has approximately four hundred individual groups of archival records and manuscript collections and many additional oral histories, photographs, newspapers, leaflets, pamphlets, sound recordings, microfilms, movie films, maps, and posters dating from 1650 to the 1980s. Additional historical sources on Pennsylvania and Centre County can be found in the Special Collections Library's Rare Books and Manuscripts and Penn State University Archives. Selected Finding Aids are available online.
Contact the Archives staff to make an appointment for help with your research: 814-863-2505
Citing Your Sources
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A web based citation management tool that allows you to easily format you paper and bibliography in Chicago Style.
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Other citation guides.
- KnightCite -- an online citation generator service provided by the Hekman Library of Calvin College.
Need additional help with your citations? Contact
- Helen Sheehy hms2@psu.edu 863-1347
- Ellysa Cahoy ecahoy@psu.edu
- Andrew Calvin arc143@psu.edu
(e-reference)