Some Working Titles for Labor Day

From the 1894 establishment of the Labor Day federal holiday through the early 1900s, labor leaders and workers used the day to raise awareness of their issues through parades and other mass public forums.  Through the years the day's emphasis on labor issues through large public events has diminished, but officials of government, industry, and unions as well as clerics and educators still give Labor Day addresses covered by our nation's media. The U.S. Department of Labor describes the day as "a national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country."  (Sources:  U.S. Department of Labor - History of Labor Day web page; American Book of Days)

Hidden America:  From Coal Miners to Cowboys, An Extraordinary Exploration of the Unseen People Who Make this Country Work by Jeanne Marie Laskas (Putnam's Sons, 2012).

                                                                                                                           

Classic Labor Songs from Smithsonian Folkways Recordings (Smithsonian Folkways, 2006) - Includes a booklet with the history and context of each song.

The Initiates:  A Comic Artist and a Wine Artisan Exchange Jobs by Etienne Davodeau (NBM Comics Lit., 2013) - A graphic novel translated from the French.

The Org : The Underlying Logic of the Office by Raymond Fisman (Twelve, 2013) - What is right and necessary in the structure of American corporations plus suggestions for improvements.

Shop Class as Soulcraft: an Inquiry into the Value of Work by Matthew B. Crawford (Penguin Press, 2009) - On the value of the increasingly rarer experience of making and fixing things with one's hands.

Doctors' Diaries (DVD) (PBS, 2009) - Follows seven doctors for 21 years, beginning with their first day at Harvard Medical School in 1987 and documents their struggle to balance time at  work and home.