WEEK FOUR DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Week Four: Labor history (July 15)
Chapter One of Work Engendered , by Ava Baron

1. This is a great ARP, by the way.

2. Based on what you read here, what does labor history do that is different from other histories?

3. The role of the new histories is, as she writes, to integrate various ways of thinking into various other fields.

4. How is new labor history different from old labor history?(3)

5. How is gendered labor history, specifically, different?

6. Why were women marginalized from traditional labor history? (7)

7. New Labor History shows how the story looks different when women are in it, but more importantly how the story is different because of gender and how gender is different because of the story. (11)

8. How important is agency in history?(14 and 27) What does it mean to give agency to historical characters? Why does that matter when writing labor history?


9. INTERPRET: “Working women’s limited choice between sameness and difference historically has meant either incorporation into men’s unions or segregation and isolation.”(23)

10. Baron discusses women at work and then briefly mentions masculinity. What does a history of labor that considers masculinity look like?(30)

11. “The project of integrating gender with axes of difference among women is twofold. First, we need to deconstruct the category ‘woman.’…”(37)

12. Look at the quote at the start of page 37, the one that begins, “Gender is created…” Why is that important?


Jeffrey S. Adler, “Shoot to Kill: The Use of Deadly Force by the Chicago Police, 1875-1920,”Journal of Interdisciplinary History (2007)

1. Where was this published? Why does that matter? Examine the sources he uses.

2. Adler says that he is inspired to write about this because of a common current cultural concern. The current concern with police brutality had no historical context, so he set out to study that. What other cultural concerns might have a historical context worth studying? (235)

3. On page 237: Look at the numbers of those killed. What do numbers add to a story? 245: Look at the numbers of African-American victims. What do these numbers add to the story? Does the author present a reason for this disparity?

4. The author discusses the legal climate of Chicago. What does the legal climate have to do with murder? What is the relationship between law and crime?

5. Why is there an increase in the murder rate in the period in question?

6. When was an officer “within his rights” in killing a prisoner or suspect? (246) Compare that to the BPD article.

7. Describe the “cop culture” that Adler depicts.

8. What is the relationship between Progressivism and official violence? (do we need to go over Progressivism quickly?) Was there an unintended consequence between reform and force?