Includes bibliographical references (p. [333]-344) and index.

Ch. 1. Labor in colonial America : the bound and the free -- Legacies of conquest -- Indentured labor in British colonies -- Slavery -- Free labor -- Unruly labor -- Ch. 2. The American Revolution -- From resistance to independence -- The people's war and the gentlemen's republic -- Republican legacies -- Ch. 3. Slavery and freedom in the new republic -- "If you can't fight, kick" -- Wage workers and activism -- Solidarity and fragmentation -- Westward expansion and irrepressible conflict -- Ch. 4. Civil War and Reconstruction -- The Civil War -- Southern Reconstruction and counterrevolution -- Labor movements and struggles -- Whose government? -- Ch. 5. Labor versus monopoly in the Gilded Age -- Industrial capitalism : consolidation and crisis -- The working classes -- The Knights of Labor -- The American Federation of Labor -- Populism and racism -- Ch. 6. Labor and empire -- Empire abroad, empire at home -- The labor movement in the Progressive era -- The Great War -- The war's aftermath -- Ch. 7. America, Inc. -- The roaring twenties -- The labor movement of the twenties -- Early years of the Great Depression -- Labor rising -- Ch. 8. Labor on the march -- Grassroots unionism -- The rise of the CIO -- Whose America? -- Ch. 9. Hot war, Cold War -- America at war -- The postwar world -- "Big labor" -- Ch. 10. The sixties -- In the spirit of Montgomery -- "Power to the people" -- The sixties in the workplace -- A house divided -- Ch. 11. Hard times -- Lean and mean -- Race to the bottom -- Fighting back -- Ch. 12. Brave new world -- Making change -- Steps forward, steps back -- Turn of the century.