These are powerful accounts of starting from home and coming to labor history. Emma Amador, Max Fraser, Naomi R Williams, and Stacey L. Smith underscore the living pasts of a field once pronounced as dead that increasingly has become as central to the historical project as the invisibilized working class that has emerged as essential during the COVID-19 pandemic. In recounting the origins of their research, these new voices reinforce the link between scholarship and social commentary in ways that further extend the boundaries of the field.
Originally presented during the 2019 LAWCHA conference at a session organized by this journal, these personal narratives share major themes. They show a continual expansion of the subject of labor history, providing fresh perspectives on who counts as working class and what constitutes work. They belong to a larger trend of scrambling categories at the core of such questions. Rather than a sharp...
