Rooted in the American labor movement, Labor Day honors the landmark achievements in the struggle for workers’ rights that has continued from generation to generation. The fight to secure fair wages, hours, and decent working conditions remains as relevant now as it did in the past.

From the history of labor strikes to shining a light on the struggles of low-wage workers, this reading list exposes the reality of work life in the United States and beyond. In addition to sounding the alarm, these books also celebrate the successes of the past while charting a hopeful path forward—ranging from the powerful argument of how, together, art and movement organizers inspire real change for the better, as well as the surprising connection between Mexican workers and Midwestern dairy farmers in a divided America. These New Press titles are perfect for workers, activists, and anyone else who wants to be informed about the current and past state of the labor rights struggle in America.

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From the Folks Who Brought You the Weekend: An Illustrated History of Labor in the United States
By Priscilla Murolo and A.B. Chitty
A work of “impressive even-handedness and analytic acuity” (Publishers Weekly, starred review), From the Folks Who Brought You the Weekend tackles American history from the lens of working people, ranging from indentured servants and slaves in seventeenth-century Chesapeake to high-tech workers in contemporary Silicon Valley. With material on sex workers, disability issues, labor’s relation to the global justice movement, and more, authors Priscilla Murolo and A.B. Chitty analyze labor’s role in American life.

A History of America in Ten Strikes
By Erik Loomis
A History of America in Ten Strikes is a “brilliantly recounted American history through the prism of major labor struggles, with critically important lessons for those who seek a better future for working people and the world” (Noam Chomsky). Readers will find that knowledge of the victories and defeats of the past can inform the strike campaigns of the current moment.

Art Works: How Organizers and Artists Are Creating a Better World Together
By Ken Grossinger
Art Works is a powerful chronicle of the social change that results when artists and organizers join forces. Here, movement leader Ken Grossinger tells the recent history of the fusion of arts and activism through present and past examples, such as Black Lives Matter, Standing Rock, the Hip Hop Caucus, the Legacy Museum, and the Art for Justice Fund, making for “an inspiring overview of the growing power of cultural organizing” (Foreword Reviews). Read an excerpt from Art Works on Issuu.

One Fair Wage: Ending Subminimum Pay in America
By Saru Jayaraman
In One Fair Wage, Jayaraman shines a light on how subminimum wage and the tipping system exploit workers, who are often society’s most marginalized, “while also outlining the straightforward, concrete solutions necessary to overcome this crisis. Saru Jayaraman is a vital leader fighting for economic justice across our country, and her voice and vision are a road map for all of us” (Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal). Read an excerpt from One Fair Wage in Eater.

Milked: How an American Crisis Brought Together Midwestern Dairy Farmers and Mexican Workers
By Ruth Conniff
Milked documents the surprising friendship between Mexican workers and Midwestern dairy farmers, providing a fascinating account of the record-breaking rate of farm bankruptcies in the Upper Midwest, and the contentious politics around immigration. Overall, Milked is “an exceptionally thoughtful examination of fundamental issues—immigration, farm and food policy, globalization—that leaders in Washington have struggled to address on a deeply human level” (The Capital Times).

Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do
By Studs Terkel
Studs Terkel’s classic oral history of Americans’ working lives celebrates its fiftieth anniversary in 2024 and remains as relevant today as it did in 1974. Consisting of a collection of over one hundred interviews with working class Americans, from gravediggers to studio heads, to “read it is to hear America talking” (Boston Globe). Listen to a special episode of the classical music podcast Relevant Tones to hear a conversation about the legacy of Working and new music inspired by the book.

In a Day’s Work: The Fight to End Sexual Violence Against America’s Most Vulnerable Workers
By Bernice Yeung
Here, Pulitzer Prize finalist Bernice Yeung exposes the epidemic of sexual violence levied against low-wage workers, revealing the hidden economies that take advantage of immigrant women. In a Day’s Work is a “bleak but much-needed addition to the literature on sexual harassment in the US. . . . Building a cross-class movement, as Yeung shows, will mean learning to stop unseeing the working women around us”  (New York Review of Books).

Power Lines: Building a Labor–Climate Justice Movement
Edited by Jeff Ordower and Lindsay Zafir
An essential anthology that brings together leading organizers to share insights on the most effective ways to organize a labor movement for environmental justice. “Power Lines helps deepen the debate about how to unite and fight for a ‘Green New Deal’—or any better deal than the status quo” (Jacobin). Read an excerpt from the book in Fast Company.

Getting Me Cheap: How Low-Wage Work Traps Women and Girls in Poverty
By Amanda Freeman and Lisa Dodson
In Getting Me Cheap, sociologists Lisa Dodson and Amanda Freeman follow women in the food, health care, home care, and other low-wage industries as they struggle to balance mothering with bad jobs and without public aid. Based on years of in-depth field work and hundreds of eye-opening interviews, Getting Me Cheap “insists we face the harm of wage poverty in women’s lives and see the real costs of relying on their cheap labor. The powerful stories of mothers’ determination to care for their children become a courageous call for solidarity and collective action” (Ellen Bravo).

Worn Out: How Our Clothes Cover Up Fashion’s Sins
By Alyssa Hardy
Worn Out explores the dark side of the fashion industry, detailing how millions of garment workers—mostly women of color—toil in the fashion industry around the world, from LA-based sweatshop employees who experience sexual abuse while stitching clothes for H&M, Fashion Nova, and Levi’s, to “homeworkers” in Indonesia who are unknowingly given carcinogenic materials to work with. Worn Out is a “scorching exposé” and “will have readers thinking twice before they make their next purchase” (Publishers Weekly). Read an excerpt from Worn Out in Teen Vogue.

On the Job: The Untold Story of Worker Centers and the New Fight for Wages, Dignity, and Health
By Celeste Monforton and Jane M. Von Bergen
For over 60 million people, work in America has been a story of declining wages, insecurity, and unsafe conditions, especially during the past coronavirus epidemic. On the Job follows how ordinary people challenge their unfair working conditions, and is a “timely and well-documented account [that] offers hope for the future of the American labor movement” (Publishers Weekly).

Murder in the Garment District: The Grip of Organized Crime and the Decline of Labor in the United States
By David Witwer and Catherine Rios
Through the lens of union organizer William Lurye’s murder in 1949 at the hands of a mob assassin, prizewinning authors David Witwer and Catherine Rios explore American labor history at its critical turning point. Reading like a true-crime thriller, Murder in the Garment District includes a riveting cast of characters, from wheeling and dealing union president David Dubinsky to the notorious gangster Abe Chait and the crusading Robert F. Kennedy, making for “a painstaking reconstruction of a sensational 1949 murder and a tumultuous era that marked the beginning of the long decline of American labor unions” (Kirkus Reviews).