1.1: The Labor Question

Paired Sources from U.S. History, 1877-present
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Abstract

Industrialization made working harder. New technology made old skills like shoemaking or iron puddling largely obsolete, because in many industries, the factories that relied on new technologies could drastically underprice factories that depended upon skilled labor to produce their wares. This led to enormous instability among working-class Americans who found themselves cast out of once well-paying, stable jobs. Many of those workers formed trade unions to further labor’s control of their workplaces, but many of those trade unions were destroyed by anti-union employers and their pro-business allies in government at all levels.

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