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History News Network

History News Network puts current events into historical perspective. Subscribe to our newsletter for new perspectives on the ways history continues to resonate in the present. Explore our archive of thousands of original op-eds and curated stories from around the web. Join us to learn more about the past, now.

What Is Labor Day All About?


Labor Day pamphlet, 1942, produced by the Office for Emergency Management.

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News & Commentary

  • Brigid O’Farrell: Why You Should Be Thinking about Eleanor Roosevelt this Week (9-1-16)
  • Brendan I. Koerner: Why Do We Get Labor Day Off? (9-6-10)
  • Jefferson Cowie: That ’70s Feeling (9-5-10)
  • Juan Cole: Labor Day in a Kleptocracy (9-7-09)
  • Timothy P. Lynch: Unions Still Needed Today (9-6-09)
  • Donna Haverty-Stacke: Can Obama Change America’s Understanding of Class and Dissent? (1-16-09)
  • Michael Honey: Labor Day 2008 ... Support Employee Free Choice (9-1-08)
  • Labor union teaching labor history to teachers (6-4-07)
  • Nelson Lichtenstein on Political Repression [VIDEO] (2007)
  • Who Started Labor Day? (8-10-06)
  • Interview with Willie Drye: Katrina and the Great Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 (9-6-05)
  • Curt Andersen: May Day: How Workers Got All Those Rights (4-28-04)
  • The Top Five Myths About Work (7-5-02)