The Philip Taft Labor History Book Award is sponsored by the
Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations in cooperation with the
Labor and Working-Class History Association for books relating to
labor history of the United States. Labor history is considered "in a broad sense to include the history of workers (free and unfree, organized and unorganized), their institutions, and their workplaces, as well as the broader historical trends that have shaped working-class life, including but not limited to: immigration, slavery, community, the state, race, gender, and ethnicity." The award is named after the noted labor historian
Philip Taft (1902–1976).
1981 –
James A. Gross for Reshaping of the National Labor Relations Board: A Study in Economics, Politics, and the Law
1982 – co-winners:
Alice Kessler-Harris for Out to Work: A History of Wage-Earning Women in the United States; and
Howell John Harris for The Right to Manage: Industrial Relations Policies of American Business in the 1940s
1988 –
Alan Derickson for Workers' Health, Workers' Democracy: The Western Miners Struggle, 1891–1925
1989 – co-winners:
Joshua Freeman for In Transit: The Transport Workers Union in New York City, 1933–1966; and
Philip Scranton for Figured Tapestry: Production, Markets and Power in Philadelphia Textiles, 1855–1941
1997 –
Sanford M. Jacoby for Modern Manors: Welfare Capitalism Since the New Deal
1999 –
Joseph McCartin for Labor's Great War: The Struggle for Industrial Democracy and the Origins of Modern American Labor Relations, 1912–1921
2000 –
Jefferson R. Cowie for Capital Moves: RCA's 70-Year Quest for Cheap Labor
2001 –
Gunther Peck for Reinventing Free Labor: Padrones and Immigrant Workers in the North American West, 1880–1930
2002 –
Alice Kessler-Harris for In Pursuit of Equity: Women, Men, and the Quest for Economic Citizenship in 20th Century America
2003 –
Nelson Lichtenstein for State of the Union: A Century of American Labor
2004 – co-winners:
Frank Tobias Higbie for Indispensable Outcasts: Hobo Workers and Community in the American Midwest, 1880–1930; and
Robert Korstad for Civil Rights Unionism: Tobacco Workers and the Struggle for Democracy in the Mid-Twentieth-Century South
2005 –
Dorothy Sue Cobble for The Other Women's Movement: Workplace Justice and Social Rights in Modern America
2006 –
James N. Gregory for The Southern Diaspora: How the Great Migrations of Black and White Southerners Transformed America
2010 -
Seth Rockman for Scraping By: Wage Labor, Slavery, and Survival in Early Baltimore
2011 -
James D. Schmidt for Industrial Violence and the Legal Origins of Child Labor
2012 -
Cindy Hahamovitch for No Man's Land: Jamaican Guestworkers in America and the Global History of Deportable Labor
2013 – co-winners:
Matt Garcia for From the Jaws of Victory: The Triumph and Tragedy of Cesar Chavez and the Farm Worker Movement; and
Kimberley Phillips for War! What Is It Good For?: Black Freedom Struggles and the U.S. Military from World War II to Iraq
2014 -
Matthew L. Basso for Meet Joe Copper: Masculinity and Race on Montana’s World War II Home Front
2016 - co-winners:
Nancy Woloch for A Class by Herself: Protective Laws for Women Workers, 1890s-1990s; and
Talitha L. LeFlouria for Chained in Silence: Black Women and Convict Labor in the New South
2017 -
LaShawn Harris for Sex Workers, Psychics, and Numbers Runners: Black Women in New York City's Underground Economy
2018 -
Sarah F. Rose for No Right to Be Idle: The Invention of Disability, 1840s-1930s
2019 - co-winners:
Peter Cole (Historian) for Dockworker Power: Race and Activism in Durban and the San Francisco Bay Area; and
Joshua Freeman for Behemoth: A History of the Factory and the Making of the Modern World
The Philip Taft Labor History Book Award is sponsored by the
Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations in cooperation with the
Labor and Working-Class History Association for books relating to
labor history of the United States. Labor history is considered "in a broad sense to include the history of workers (free and unfree, organized and unorganized), their institutions, and their workplaces, as well as the broader historical trends that have shaped working-class life, including but not limited to: immigration, slavery, community, the state, race, gender, and ethnicity." The award is named after the noted labor historian
Philip Taft (1902–1976).
1981 –
James A. Gross for Reshaping of the National Labor Relations Board: A Study in Economics, Politics, and the Law
1982 – co-winners:
Alice Kessler-Harris for Out to Work: A History of Wage-Earning Women in the United States; and
Howell John Harris for The Right to Manage: Industrial Relations Policies of American Business in the 1940s
1988 –
Alan Derickson for Workers' Health, Workers' Democracy: The Western Miners Struggle, 1891–1925
1989 – co-winners:
Joshua Freeman for In Transit: The Transport Workers Union in New York City, 1933–1966; and
Philip Scranton for Figured Tapestry: Production, Markets and Power in Philadelphia Textiles, 1855–1941
1997 –
Sanford M. Jacoby for Modern Manors: Welfare Capitalism Since the New Deal
1999 –
Joseph McCartin for Labor's Great War: The Struggle for Industrial Democracy and the Origins of Modern American Labor Relations, 1912–1921
2000 –
Jefferson R. Cowie for Capital Moves: RCA's 70-Year Quest for Cheap Labor
2001 –
Gunther Peck for Reinventing Free Labor: Padrones and Immigrant Workers in the North American West, 1880–1930
2002 –
Alice Kessler-Harris for In Pursuit of Equity: Women, Men, and the Quest for Economic Citizenship in 20th Century America
2003 –
Nelson Lichtenstein for State of the Union: A Century of American Labor
2004 – co-winners:
Frank Tobias Higbie for Indispensable Outcasts: Hobo Workers and Community in the American Midwest, 1880–1930; and
Robert Korstad for Civil Rights Unionism: Tobacco Workers and the Struggle for Democracy in the Mid-Twentieth-Century South
2005 –
Dorothy Sue Cobble for The Other Women's Movement: Workplace Justice and Social Rights in Modern America
2006 –
James N. Gregory for The Southern Diaspora: How the Great Migrations of Black and White Southerners Transformed America
2010 -
Seth Rockman for Scraping By: Wage Labor, Slavery, and Survival in Early Baltimore
2011 -
James D. Schmidt for Industrial Violence and the Legal Origins of Child Labor
2012 -
Cindy Hahamovitch for No Man's Land: Jamaican Guestworkers in America and the Global History of Deportable Labor
2013 – co-winners:
Matt Garcia for From the Jaws of Victory: The Triumph and Tragedy of Cesar Chavez and the Farm Worker Movement; and
Kimberley Phillips for War! What Is It Good For?: Black Freedom Struggles and the U.S. Military from World War II to Iraq
2014 -
Matthew L. Basso for Meet Joe Copper: Masculinity and Race on Montana’s World War II Home Front
2016 - co-winners:
Nancy Woloch for A Class by Herself: Protective Laws for Women Workers, 1890s-1990s; and
Talitha L. LeFlouria for Chained in Silence: Black Women and Convict Labor in the New South
2017 -
LaShawn Harris for Sex Workers, Psychics, and Numbers Runners: Black Women in New York City's Underground Economy
2018 -
Sarah F. Rose for No Right to Be Idle: The Invention of Disability, 1840s-1930s
2019 - co-winners:
Peter Cole (Historian) for Dockworker Power: Race and Activism in Durban and the San Francisco Bay Area; and
Joshua Freeman for Behemoth: A History of the Factory and the Making of the Modern World