CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2012
| Author | Smith, Emma Pearl |
|---|---|
| Title | Examining the Role of Ethnic Identity in the Formation of the American Labor Movement |
| Summary | The labor movement has faced a host of issues since its inception over 100 years ago. Government attacks and an indifferent population has placed union membership at an all time low. Looking back, these modern issues can be related to labor's inability to harness a strong identity during its formative years, the mid to late 1800s through the mid 1900s. In lieu of this, other identities took hold including gender, racial and ethnic. With the large influx of immigrants at this time ethnic identity among workers was strong. By examining the utilization of ethnic identity in the labor movement through various theories concerning group identity formation and case studies on the Irish and Jewish populations it has become evident that creation of an ethnic identity, or any for that matter, would have greatly benefited labor in the long term and ensured the strong survival of the movement. Ultimately, ethnic identity had a formidable impact on the formation of the movement, but that power was lost in the wake of business unionism and loss of common identity among working people. |
| Supervisor | Pogonyi, Szabolcs |
| Department | Nationalism Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2012/smith_emma.pdf |
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