The Newberry Library Seminar in Labor History
Co-sponsored by the Chicago and Urbana Campuses of the University of Illinois and the Labor and Working Class History Association
October 3, 2003
3:00-5:00 p.m.

Jefferson Cowie, Cornell University
Last Days of the Working-Class: A Social History of 1970s Popular Culture

Common people and the problem of class returned to commercial popular culture in the 1970s with an unprecedented frequency and complexity. This paper analyzes how the social history of the decade was interpreted through an unresolved tension between the old social realist imagery of the thirties and forties and the politics of the new social movements of the 1960s. Rather than a lasting revival of the working-class in song and screen, the aesthetics and politics produced by this tension essentially marked the end of the working class in American popular culture.

We will pre-circulate papers (electronically whenever possible) to those planning to attend. If you cannot attend and want to read a paper, please contact the author directly. E-mail or call to receive a copy of the papers. Please include your e-mail address in all correspondence.

The full schedule for this and other Scholl Center seminars is available at our website.