Printing
Wang Xinyang, The Rise of Transnational Labour History in the U.S., Its New Ideas and Problems
2020-12-03
The New Labour History, which rose in the 1960s, dramatically changed the approach of the Old Labour History which only focused on the institutional issues concerning trade unions and collective bargaining. Instead, the New Labour History concentrated on the history and culture of the American workers themselves, representing a turning point in American labour historiography. However, both the old and the new labour history were concerned with the experience of the workers within the United States. By contrast, the emerging transnational labour history significantly expanded the scope of investigation to include all the toilers within the U.S. Empire. Based on the fact that workers of various countries began working for the empire as soon as the Civil War ended, transnational labour historians argue that the U.S. Empire actually came into existence in the 1870s rather than in 1898, the year of the Spanish-American War. They also argue that the U.S. Empire included the countries controlled by American transnational corporations and countries where U.S. armed forces were stationed in addition to the territory of the U.S. per se and its formal colonies. Meanwhile, transnational labour historians have also introduced the idea of the ‘wages of empire’ which is helpful to understand why the workers of the empire failed to achieve transnational and transracial solidarity. While transnational labour history undoubtedly represents a new turning point in American labour historiography, this new school does have some shortcomings. The current works conducted by historians in this tradition mostly focus on the period from the 1870s to the 1930s and on the overseas part of the workers of the empire. It is expected that these shortcomings would be overcome so that it is able to see a more complete history of the working class of the U.S. Empire soon.