Old v New Labor History Old Labor History Before the 1960s, most labor historians around the world focused on the history of labor unions. In the United States labor economists at the University of Wisconsin dominated the academic discipline of labor history. Paramount in their research were the development of markets, trade unions, and political philosophies. New Labor History In the 1950s, British and other European historians developed the field of social history to correct the structuralist imbalances they perceived in the study of history. Social historians not only sought to enlarge the study of history but to refocus it on the experiences of common people rather than institutions or elites.

Old v New Labor History Old Labor History John R. Commons John Thomas Dunlop Joseph Rayback Philip Taft New Labor History E. P. Thompson Herbert Gutman David Brody Melvyn Dubofsky David Montgomery

Old v New Labor History Old Labor History Before the 1960s, most labor historians around the world focused on the history of labor unions. In the United States labor economists at the University of Wisconsin dominated the academic discipline of labor history. Paramount in their research were the development of markets, trade unions, and political philosophies. New Labor History In the 1950s, British and other European historians developed the field of social history to correct the structuralist imbalances they perceived in the study of history. Social historians not only sought to enlarge the study of history but to refocus it on the experiences of common people rather than institutions or elites.

John R. Commons (1862–1945) An American institutional economist and labor historian at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Themes of Old Labor History Origins of work forces Conditions and rewards of labor Labor v Capital Labor and the Law Labor and Politics John R. Commons Wisconsin School of labor history

Herbert Gutman (1928 – July 21 Herbert Gutman Historian of the working class Herbert Gutman American professor of history at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, where he wrote on slavery and labor history.

New Labor History New labor history is a branch of labor history which focuses on the experiences of workers, women, and minorities in the study of history. It is heavily influenced by social history. Before the 1960s, most labor historians around the world focused on the history of labor unions. In the United States, for example, labor economists at the University of Wisconsin dominated the academic discipline of labor history. Paramount in their research were the development of markets, trade unions, and political philosophies.

New Labor History In the 1950s, social historians not only sought to enlarge the study of history but to refocus it on the experiences of common people rather than institutions or elites. British social historians such as E. P. Thompson, in particular, had a significant impact on American labor historians. Labor scholars to the right and left of the American political spectrum found it difficult to explain the rise of labor in the late 19th century, and social history offered at least a new approach to solving the riddle. Social history also took root at the same time that American organized labor began to decline. For left-leaning labor scholars, social history suggested a new way to revitalize the U.S. labor movement by focusing attention away from conservative leaders and institutions, as well as a means for academics to engage with workers themselves. For some, the new labor history moved the discipline of labor history away from the Marxist theoretical perspective that saw trade union movements in terms of elites, classes and institutions (see Rogin, 2002).

New Labor History European and American critics of the "new labor history" charge that historians now neglect institutions and elites. They argue that labor leaders and unions shape workers' goals and values as much as reflect them. They also point out that the "new labor history" has a tendency to ignore larger cultural trends and movements and technological developments which operate on a more systemic level than the individual. Especially in the U.S., many young labor historians are attempting a new synthesis of the "old" and "new" labor histories.