We put the working class, in all its varieties, at the center of our work. The new working-class studies is not only about the labor movement, or about workers of any particular kind, or workers in any particular place--even in the workplace. Instead, we ask questions about how class works for people at work, at home, and in the community. We explore how class both unites and divides working-class people, which highlights the importance of understanding how class shapes and is shaped by race, gender, ethnicity, and place. We reflect on the common interests as well as the divisions between the most commonly imagined version of the working class--industrial, blue-collar workers--and workers in the 'new economy' whose work and personal lives seem, at first glance, to place them solidly in the middle class.--from the Introduction

In John Russo and Sherry Lee Linkon's book, contributors trace the origins of the new working-class studies, explore how it is being developed both within and across fields, and identify key themes and issues. Historians, economists, geographers, sociologists, and scholars of literature and cultural studies introduce many and varied aspects of this emerging field. Throughout, they consider how the study of working-class life transforms traditional disciplines and stress the importance of popular and artistic representations of working-class life.

Contributors: Robert Bruno, University of Illinois; Renny Christopher, California State University-Channel Islands; Jim Daniels, Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh; Elizabeth Faue, Wayne State University; Lisa Jordan, University of Minnesota; Paul Lauter, Trinity College; Sherry Lee Linkon, Youngstown State University; Jack Metzgar, Roosevelt University in Chicago; Don Mitchell, Syracuse University; Kimberley L. Phillips, The College of William and Mary; Alessandro Portelli, University of Rome La Sapienza; David Roediger, University of Illinois, Rachel Lee Rubin, University of Massachusetts-Boston; John Russo, Youngstown State University; Tim Strangleman, London Metropolitan University; Tom Zaniello, Northern Kentucky University and George Meany Center for Labor Studies; Michael Zweig, State University of New York at Stony Brook