Teaching Guides

The Power in Our Hands: A Curriculum on the History of Work and Workers in the United States

Teaching Guide. By Bill Bigelow and Norm Diamond. 1988. 184 pages.
Role plays and writing activities project high school students into real-life situations to explore the history and contemporary reality of employment (and unemployment) in the U.S.

Time Periods: 19th Century, 1877, 20th Century, 1920

Themes: Economics, Labor, Organizing, Racism & Racial Identity

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Role plays and writing activities project students into real-life situations to explore the history and contemporary reality of employment (and unemployment) in the United States.

Complete with handouts and case-studies, this curriculum introduces students to key groups, events, and issues such as the Homestead Strike, the Union Maids, the Southern Tenant Farmers Union, “scientific management,” and the impact of racism on labor.

“This is a workbook in the best sense. Its approach is original, exhilarating, and, most important, practical. That most neglected of all subjects in U.S. schools — the visions and lives of working people — is faced head-on in this book. A must for all people who earn their daily bread.” —Studs Terkel

“Most school teachers are drowned in paper, but here is one book I want to recommend to them. It is a way of getting American teenagers not just interested, but excited and passionate about their history — modern American labor history.” —Pete Seeger

“Everywhere I go I recommend this unique book. You want to learn more about labor history than just dates and famous people? Read and use this book. At long last, a book as exciting as labor’s struggle itself.” —Julia Reichert, filmmaker

“. . . one of the best social studies curricula ever produced.” —Fred Glass, California Federation of Teachers

ISBN: 9780853457534 | Monthly Review Press