You Work Tomorrow: An Anthology of American Labor Poetry, 1929-41John Marsh "An outstanding piece of scholarship and a welcome contribution to the field, this collection of neglected but powerful poetry speaks to our own time as much as it does to its own era." ---Nicholas Coles, University of Pittsburgh "Opens up a dramatic new aspect of American literature for study, discussion, and enjoyment. The collection of poems is original and engaging and is sure to be useful for classes in literature, American history, and labor studies." ---Alan Wald, University of Michigan You Work Tomorrow provides a glimpse into a relatively unknown aspect of American literary and labor history---the remarkable but largely forgotten poems published in union newspapers during the turbulent 1930s. Members of all unions---including autoworkers, musicians, teachers, tenant farmers, garment workers, artists, and electricians---wrote thousands of poems during this period that described their working, living, and political conditions. From this wealth of material, John Marsh has chosen poetry that is both aesthetically appealing and historically relevant, dispelling the myth that labor poetry consisted solely of amateurish and predictable sloganeering. A foreword by contemporary poet Jim Daniels is followed by John Marsh's substantive introduction, detailing the cultural and political significance of union poetry. John Marsh is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Coordinator of The Odyssey Project, a year-long, college-accredited course in the humanities offered at no cost to adults living below or slightly above the federal poverty level. A volume in the series Class: Culture |
Contents
American Federation of Musicians | 33 |
American Federation of Teachers | 40 |
Ann Winthrop | 46 |
Anonymous | 211 |
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African American American Federation Anonymous anthology Arturo Giovannitti autoworkers bread Brotherhood coal coal-black blues company unions Dearborn decades Depression dream factory fight Ford's Garment Workers Garment Workers Union Gilberton Halker Handcox hell Henry Ford house that Jack I.S.U. Pilot ILGWU Industrial Worker International Ladies Garment Jack built Justice Korson labor movement labor poetry Ladies Garment Workers land literary live machines mass and popular million miners Miriam Tane Modestus Motors National never newspaper Nine old men organize picket planters poem was accompanied poets political popular culture production Profit System published radio Ralph Chaplin sailors sharecropper song Southern Tenant Farmers Stand in line STFU strike surpluses T-Bone Slim There's thousand Tillie Olsen tomorrow twentieth century United Auto Worker United Automobile Worker United Mine Workers voices wages worker-poets Workers Journal Workers of America working-class World York