New Report: Labor’s Story Left Out of High School History Textbooks

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A new report on how the history of labor is treated in high school history textbooks offers an explanation – most Americans never got any education about the labor movement’s proper place in our country’s history and its many contributions to the nation’s development.

American Labor and U.S. History Textbooks: How Labor’s Story is Distorted in High School History Textbooks, sponsored by the Albert Shanker Institute, in cooperation with the American Labor Studies Center, surveys four major textbooks that together account for most of the market in U.S. history textbooks. The report notes that these textbooks often present labor history in a biased, negative way; for example, focusing on strikes and strike violence while giving little or no attention to the employer abuse and violence that were usually at the root of such actions. Their persistent focus on conflict overrides any attention to labor’s central historical role in bringing generations of Americans into the middle class.

In addition, while the report credits the textbooks with some accurate reporting, it notes that the textbooks virtually ignore:

_ the vital role of union activism in passing broad social protections and reforms such as the eight-hour work day, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, occupational safety and health, the end of abusive child labor, and environmental protection;

_ organized labor’s strong support for the civil rights movement; and

_ the role organized labor played in the 1960s in particular, when the rise of public sector unionization brought many more Americans into the middle class and gave new rights to public employees.

Here are some highlights from the report:

- The Role Of Unions In Winning Broad Social Protections Is Overlooked: The textbooks surveyed failed to record the history of American unions using their political clout to win social protections for all Americans. This overlooked advocacy includes activism on behalf of the “Progressive Era and New Deal reforms, such as the Social Security Act of 1935, Medicare, Medicaid, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and the Environmental Protection Agency.”

- The Role Of American Labor In Battling Human Rights Abuses Abroad Is Ignored: The report notes that the textbooks surveyed failed to mention the “the important role that the American labor movement played in support of the establishment of free and democratic trade unions in post-war Western Europe.” They also ignored the role that unions played in allying with the anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa or “numerous other efforts to support free and democratic unions as a bulwark against totalitarian and authoritarian regimes.”

- Labor’s Role In Winning Civil Rights Is Ignored: One of the major omissions of these textbooks is overlooking the role that unions played in the civil rights movement. The contributions of labor leaders to these movements are ignored, and the labor advocacy conducted by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is barely covered. There is no mention in any of the textbooks, for example, that AFL-CIO president George Meany paid $160,000 in 1963 for bail to release King and 2,000 other civil rights demonstrators from jail.

- Anti-Union Behavior By Employers Is Glossed Over: The report finds that the textbooks largely ignore the “history of aggressive and at times violent anti-union behavior by employers.” These abuses are “neither addressed as a significant legal problem nor is it analyzed as a serious denial of First Amendment rights.” For example, The Americans praises Andrew Carnegie’s and John D. Rockefeller’s business successes but fails to note their anti-union behavior.

- Major Strikes Are Misrepresented: Historic strikes are “treated as costly failures, as violent, as lacking public support and backfiring against unions.” The “role [of the employer] in provoking strikes through prolonged, unrelenting worker abuse, and employers’ attempts to suppress strikes, often through illegal and violent means, are glossed over.” For example, American Anthem praises Reagan’s firing of PATCO workers, calling it “decisive.”

The reports’ sponsors will be sending a letter to each of the four textbook publishers asking to discuss the issue in person and to recommend more accurate accounts of what labor has done. Their hope is to encourage all publishers and curriculum developers to take another look at the social studies materials they have produced to correct these kinds of inaccuracies and omissions.


The report notes that the problem of negative or incomplete coverage of the labor movement in school textbooks dates back at least to the New Deal era, and that scholars began documenting this biased treatment beginning in the 1960’s. It concludes that U.S. history texts have essentially taken sides in the intense political debate around unions—the anti-union side.

The report reviewed hard-copy student editions of textbooks published by Harcourt/Holt (2009), Houghton Mifflin/McDougal (2009), McGraw Hill/Glencoe (2010), and Pearson/Prentice Hall (2010) for high school U.S. history classes. It is designed to be both a critique and a valuable resource for teachers, students, and others that can help fill in the gaps left by many standard textbooks. (Note: Harcourt/Holt and Houghton Mifflin/McDougal are now Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.)