Curated OER
Working Conditions in the Industrial Age
Students examine working conditions during the Industrial boom. In this Industrialization lesson plan, students analyze primary sources in order to chart the responsibilities of workers in industrial jobs.
Curated OER
Affidavit and Flyers from the Chinese Boycott Case
Students divide into small groups and study one of the three union flyers. Groups share their findings with the whole class and clarify unfamiliar vocabulary terms.
Curated OER
The Study of the Spanish-Speaking People of Texas: Pictures, Images, and Photographs
Students examine how art is used to make statements about social conditions. They analyze photos by the photojournalist Russell Lee, and complete a worksheet.
Curated OER
Senate Confirmation Hearings on Cabinet
Students explain the confirmation process of presidential nominees to the Cabinet. They compose a list of questions to ask at a conformation hearing.
Curated OER
U.S. History: The Second Great Migration
Students examine the migration of rural African Americans to northern cities following World War !!. After predicting the effects of cultural and economic factors, they write essays explaining the impact of migration on communities and...
![Bureau of Labor Statistics: Compensation From Before Wwi Through Great Depression [Pdf] Handout](https://d15y2dacu3jp90.cloudfront.net/images/attachment_defaults/resource/large/FPO-knovation.png "Bureau of Labor Statistics: Compensation From Before Wwi Through Great Depression [Pdf] Handout")
US Department of Labor
Bureau of Labor Statistics: Compensation From Before Wwi Through Great Depression [Pdf]
This interesting article from the Bureau of Labor Statistics discusses how working conditions and low pay prior to World War I led to the increase in union membership. Read how the government viewed labor and labor unions during World...
Texas State Historical Association
Texas State Historical Association: Labor Organizations
The history of the labor movement in Texas is examined, beginning during the Republic of Texas. The article discusses the different labor organizations that formed in various industries, and how these evolved over time. As immigration...
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Gilder Lehrman Institute: Immigration and Migration
[Free Registration/Login Required] A lengthy essay discussing the differing opinions about immigration and the role of immigrants in the United States in the latter half of the 19th century and the early 20th century. Find out about the...
Harvard University
Open Collections Program: Immigration to the United States, 1789 1930: Timeline
A broad look at immigration policy, its changes, and the numbers of immigrants arriving in the United States from its beginnings until 1940. Included are hyperlinks to primary sources related to the topic in the Harvard University Library.
Library of Congress
Loc: Teachers: Child Labor in America
Historical photographs provide students with a firsthand look at the issue of child labor during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. In this lesson plan, students will use photographs to further understanding of the...
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: Irish and German Immigration
Read about the reasons thousands of Irish and Germans emigrated to the United States in the first half of the 19th century. Find out why there was a backlash to influx of so many immigrants, and learn about the Nativists who wanted to...
Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum
Cprr History Museum: Chinese Laborers and Construction of the Central Pacific
An article from the Utah Quarterly, Vol. 37, No. 1, by George Kraus, recounts the decision to use Chinese laborers in building the Central Pacific Railroad. Many primary source documents included as well as supplemental direct quotes in...
Library of Congress
Loc: Chinese Immigration to the Us, 1851 1900
A collection of primary source documents giving historical evidence regarding the immigration of Chinese into the U.S. and the feelings of the government and the other settlers about it.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: City of Immigrants
Players navigate New York's Lower East Side as Lena, a young Jewish immigrant from Russia who is trying to save money to bring her parents to America. She works long hours in a factory for little money and gets caught up in the growing...
Stanford University
Sheg: Document Based: Reading Like a Historian: Chinese Immigration, Exclusion
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students reading primary source documents to solve a problem surrounding a historical question. This inquiry lesson allows students to explore the social and economic factors that fueled the wave of...
Immigration and Ethnic History Society
Iehs: Marc Sanko, "The Worlds of the Immigration Historian"
This article focuses on the role of an immigration historian. The future of immigration history is a blending of the immigration story with the wider historical world: an immigration historian, a labor historian, and a diplomatic historian.
Immigration and Ethnic History Society
Iehs: Melanie Simone Lorenz, "Promoting Immigration in 19th Century America"
This blog focuses on the U.S.'s need for immigration in the 19th and early 20th century to satisfy particular labor needs and increase investments.
Tennessee Historical Society
Tennessee Encyclopedia: Knights of Labor
The Tennessee Encyclopedia offers an interesting account of the Knights of Labor organization, particularly its actions in Tennessee. Read about how immigrants, African Americans, and women were all included in the membership of the...
University of California
University of California, Berkeley: Immigration From Mexico
This article explores how immigration from Mexico has both helped and hurt the American economy.
Library of Congress
Loc: Learning Page: Labor in America
A rich collection of resources, including primary sources, student activities, and lesson plans, to support study of Americans at work in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota: Immigration History: Global Economy & Migration
This resource is a suplement to a documentary about global labor migration, from developing to developed countries, at the end of the twentieth century. This module encourages critical thinking about the influence that global capitalism...
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Gilder Lehrman Institute: History Now: Immigration: Framing Soo Hoo Lem Kong
[Free Registration/Login Required] This resource presents a primary lesson plan that looks at primary sources to learn about Chinese immigration to California.
Harvard University
Harvard Univ. Library: The Tide of Immigration: The Alien Contract Labor Law
This chapter from a 1916 book by Frank Julian Warne, titled The Tide of Immigration, outlines how the so-called native workers' jobs should be protected from the influx of immigrants. Read about the law that made it illegal for...
ClassFlow
Class Flow: Industrial Revolution & Immigration
[Free Registration/Login Required] This lesson has notes covering the American Industrial Revolution and famous leaders of the industrial age. Also includes the need for immigrants to supply the factories with workers.