Reading a collection of labor history essays from the mid-00s. Good history, but so intensely local and hard for outsiders to access. When did the New New Labor History begin, replacing this sort of thing with big stories? I guess it's with Cowie and McCartin's huge great books.
And really--labor historians returning to asking big questions and telling big stories has been hugely rejuvenating for the field.
The next thing labor historians need to do is to remember that a period before World War II exists. Go to LAWCHA and it's like the 19th century never happened. Which is in itself a gigantic transformation from the recent past.
