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If high school history courses are meant to introduce students to the paradoxes and debates of American history, then they should study the 1619 Project, the authors argue in this article. College history students regularly debate the extent to which slavery was formative to the development of American systems of law, business, medicine, religion and foreign policy. The original 1619 Project, in addition to the "1619 Project" book, offers teachers a set of historical essays they can assign, debate, and discuss with their students. However in 27 states, elected officials on school boards and legislatures press to muzzle classroom discussions on slavery, race, and white supremacy under the presumption that an emphasis on the structures of white supremacy stokes conflict over inequality and furthers unfair implications of white students' complicity in American racism. When politicians encourage teachers to censor the historical record and thus prevent discussion of controversies, they reduce primary and secondary education in social studies to nationalistic indoctrination.

Thomas Castillo's book, "Working in the Magic City: Moral Economy in Early Twentieth Century Miami," explores the dynamics of class harmony and the role of business leaders in shaping narratives of community justice in Miami. Castillo argues that business leaders in Miami leveraged their economic privilege to control the media, city governance, and employment opportunities, perpetuating divisions among workers. The book highlights the resistance efforts of workers, particularly interracial labor movements, against employer-directed narratives that marginalized certain groups. Castillo's work sheds light on the challenges of building an interracial labor movement in the twentieth century and is recommended for those interested in understanding local power dynamics and class relations. [Extracted from the article]

"Claiming the City: A Global History of Workers' Fight for Municipal Socialism" by Shelton Stromquist explores the period between 1880 and 1920 when working people in industrialized cities worldwide built movements to demand city infrastructure and better conditions for workers. The book provides a comparative analysis of the methods used by working people in different countries to advocate for municipal reform. It highlights the role of social democrats and labor parties in Europe, as well as the contributions of German-American socialists in the United States. However, the book also raises questions about the Eurocentric perspective of social democratic triumph and the racial dynamics within the working-class movement. Overall, the book offers a comprehensive and important study of the history of municipal reform. [Extracted from the article]

The mythology of American democracy, that concept that the United States was formed as a contract among free and equal men, has uniquely shaped the American labor movement. Nineteenth-century trade unions and labor parties demanded higher wages and better working conditions but implicitly revered the systems of White supremacy and settler colonialism. The American Federation of Labor, the largest U.S. trade union federation of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, thwarted efforts to build a labor party or stir working-class consciousness across the lines of race, gender, or skill. Trade union leaders largely opted to demand improvements to contracts on the basis of White male respectability. In the early twentieth century, collaborative work between the Industrial Workers of the World and the Roman Catholic Church gave birth to new American concepts of human rights and international solidarity, ideas that offered a real counterpoint to the concept of democracy revered within the American parliamentary system. Father Hagerty, author of several founding documents for the Wobblies, including his famous "Wheel of Fortune," was one important figure who brought European concepts of solidarity and human rights into the American mainstream. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Janis Thiessen, Not Talking Union: An Oral History of North American Mennonites and Labour (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press 2016) SOCIAL HISTORIANS of the late-20th century have struggled to [...]

The author expresses her views on empathizing with unchurched working class Christians which she presented at a roundtable discussion held during the 50th Anniversary of the Conference on Faith and History at Calvin College in Michigan in October 2018. Topics discussed include the examination by historians of issues involving unchurched masses, the establishment of colleges and seminaries during the Gilded Age, and how working class Christians are viewed by the Conference on Faith and History.

The article offers brief profiles of several college history teachers which include Davarian L. Baldwin, Ian Binnington, and Cara Caddoo who contributed to the writing of the journal.