Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor

This revelatory and inclusive book unearths the stories of the peoplefarm laborers, domestic workers, factory employeesbehind some of the labor movements biggest successes (The New York Times) from independent journalist and Teen Vogue labor columnist Kim Kelly. Freed Black women organizing for protection in the Reconstruction-era South. Jewish immigrant garment workers braving deadly conditions for a sliver of independence. Asian American fieldworkers rejecting government-sanctioned indentured servitude across the Pacific. Incarcerated workers advocating for basic human rights and fair wages. The queer Black labor leader who helped orchestrate Americas civil rights movement. These are only some of the heroes who propelled American labors relentless push for fairness and equal protection under the law. The names and faces of countless silenced, misrepresented, or forgotten leaders have been erased by time as a privileged few decide which stories get cut from the final copy: those of women, people of color, LGBTQIA people, disabled people, sex workers, prisoners, and the poor. In this definitive and assiduously researched thought-provoking must-read (Liz Shuler, AFL-CIO president), Teen Vogue columnist and independent labor reporter Kim Kelly excavates that untold history and shows how the rights the American worker has todaythe forty-hour workweek, workplace-safety standards, restrictions on child labor, protection from harassment and discrimination on the jobwere earned with literal blood, sweat, and tears. Fight Like Hell comes at a time of economic reckoning in America. From Amazons warehouses to Starbucks cafes, Appalachian coal mines to the sex workers of Portlands Stripper Strike, interest in organized labor is at a fever pitch not seen since the early 1960s. Inspirational, intersectional, and full of crucial lessons from the past, Fight Like Hell is essential reading for anyone who believes that workers should control their fate (Shane Burley, author of Why We Fight).