Description and Information for Contributors

The Encyclopedia of Work in America will be a three-volume series comprising approximately 600,000 words. It is to be published as a primary research tool for users of high school, university, and public libraries, including students, academics, policy analysts, journalists, human resource and workforce consultants, and the general public. The Encyclopedia will be immediately important to the community of American labor and social historians, for whom no similar reference work exists. The publisher is ABC-CLIO, a privately-held publisher of library and academic books. The company focuses on history and social studies resources for the scholar, student, teacher, and librarian in universities and secondary schools. Its encyclopedia series are well-published, well-marketed, and distributed throughout the nation. The editors of the Work in America Encyclopedia are Carl E. Van Horn, director and professor, Heldrich Center for Workforce Development, Rutgers University; and Herbert Schaffner, director of marketing, communications, and publications, Heldrich Center at Rutgers.

We are seeking contributors for a number of important entries, with a deadline of July 1, 2002.

This three-volume encyclopedia will provide in alphabetically-ordered, concise essays, a comprehensive portrait of work and the workforce in the United States of America, focusing largely on developments since the Industrial Revolution through the current emergence of the new information economy. The selection and writing of the essays will reflect the fundamental ways work is experienced, understood, and acted upon by individuals and organizations in society. The nature of work incorporates 1) economics, 2) public policy and the law, 3) human and civil rights, 4) culture in society, and 5) the psychological development of the individual. Over time, these forces act upon and change our work life, the workplace and the collective workforce.

Entries will be selected and written to explain critical aspects of these areas and how they relate in shaping the human experience, the workplace, and how work works. The paramount role and influence of work as an economic force in shaping laws, opportunities, rights, and culture-and the conflict and tensions that result-will be reflected in the text. The significance of unpaid, underpaid, exploited, and dangerous work throughout American economic history will be reflected in the text. Wherever needed, entries will provide the reader with a clear sense of history, chronology, and place. Entry writing follows specific guidelines and must be accessible to the intelligent general interest reader.

Contributors will receive a by line in the Encyclopedia; and modest fees or book copies. We welcome contributors to write a number of entries. Contributing entries to this project make particular sense for early-career faculty and graduate students who would like publishing credits in their field. Please contact Herbert Schaffner with your interest in contributing entries, and we with ABC-CLIO will forward entry list, guidelines and deadlines. Contact: