Florida's Working-Class Past: Current Perspectives on Labor, Race and Gender from Spanish Florida to the New Immigration

"Not only a fine collection on Florida itself, but also a model of what edited state histories of labor might look like in the future. It is as multiracial (also moving well beyond black and white) and almost as gendered as the experiences of workers themselves. It refuses to separate the histories of slavery and of free labor. Finally it is at times impressively interdisciplinary without any lapses into disciplinary jargon."--David R. Roediger, University of Illinois

Florida provides a unique opportunity to explore the history of working men and women within a constantly changing environment. Stretching from the Spanish colonial period through the recent organizing efforts of service and agricultural workers, this collection showcases a broad spectrum of working experiences in a region that has been sorely neglected in many labor histories.

The essays in Florida's Working-Class Past pay special attention to gender, race, ethnicity, migration, and social networks. Under the guidance of editors Robert Cassanello and Melanie Shell-Weiss, the contributors offer fresh analyses of labor activism, re-contextualize Indian tribute and slavery within the context of labor history, and examine major themes in labor and working-class history in one place over several centuries.

 

Robert Cassanello is assistant professor of history at the University of Central Florida.  Melanie Shell-Weiss is  visiting assistant professor of history at Johns Hopkins University.