We kick off the season by drawing a bead on America’s favorite myth: the cowboy. While Hollywood filled our heads with wide-open plains and lone gunmen, real working folks were dodging bullets on factory floors and coalfields—just for askin’ for a weekend off. This episode unpacks how that myth helped bury the true history of labor struggle, and who stood to gain from the forgetting.
Further Reading:
Books & Academic Sources:
Foner, Philip S. History of the Labor Movement in the United States. International Publishers, multiple volumes.
Zinn, Howard. A People's History of the United States. Harper Perennial, 2003.
Green, James. The Devil Is Here in These Hills: West Virginia's Coal Miners and Their Battle for Freedom. Grove Press, 2015.
Dray, Philip. There Is Power in a Union: The Epic Story of Labor in America. Anchor Books, 2011.
Loomis, Erik. A History of America in Ten Strikes. The New Press, 2018.
Articles & Digital Archives:
“The Haymarket Affair,” National Archives: https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/haymarket-affair
“The Bloody Battle of Blair Mountain,” Smithsonian Magazine, August 2011.
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire archive, Cornell University ILR School: https://trianglefire.ilr.cornell.edu/
AFL-CIO Labor History Timeline: https://aflcio.org/about/history/labor-history-events
LaborHistory.org – curated labor history resources and strike database.
Documentaries & Films Referenced:
The Mine Wars, PBS American Experience, 2016.
Matewan, dir. John Sayles, 1987.
Classic Westerns referenced: Stagecoach (1939), High Noon (1952), The Searchers (1956).
