Nelson Lichtenstein explains the bifurcated character of American democracy. This is the manner in which participatory citizenship in politics, law and culture has not been equally extended to the worklife of many American workers.

Life and Labor brings together the most stimulating scholarship in the field of labor history today. Its fifteen essays explore the impact of industrialization and technology on the lives of working people and their responses to the changes in society over the past one-hundred-fifty years. Focusing on the everyday life of working-class Americans, it discusses such topics as production technology, occupational mobility, industrial violence, working women, resistance to exploitation, fraternal organizations, and social and leisure-time activities. The essays are written in a lively manner accessible to an undergraduate audience and also provide insights and a solid background for graduate students and scholars in the field of American labor and social history. The book presents the work of members of the generation of labor and social historians who matured in the 1970s and who are now establishing themselves as leaders in their fields.

One hundred years of labor history is explored in this detailed status report on the state of unions in America and the continuing evolution of the relationship between management and labor.