Back in the day of publishers William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, newsboys were essential players in the circulation pipeline, cheap labor that made the highly competitive industry profitable. The newsboy became an America cultural trope or archetype, a focus of rags-to-riches fiction, the target of pity and social welfare activism, a smiling stereotype, an exemplar of hard work, and an incarnation of urban poverty. "Please Buy My Last Paper, I Want to Go Home”: Portrayal of Newsboys and Newsgirls in 19th and 20th Century Music" is a talk given last Fall by Joshua Duchan from Wayne State University’s Music Department and Eric Freedman from the Michigan State University School of Journalism. The talk was part of MSU’s Our Daily Work/Our Daily Lives brown bag series, organized by John Beck. Today’s show features highlights from that talk, and adds in a number of the songs they reference.
On this week’s Labor History in Two: renowned Illinois poet Carl Sandburg wrote about workers in Gary, Indiana and farmers around Omaha, Nebraska; he wrote about railroad workers and steel workers.
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Tragedy and Resistance at Port Chicago Naval Magazine (Encore)
“The Port of Missing Men”
A Supreme disaster for workers
Working People’s Hidden Histories
Labor history at the AFL-CIO & Labor Notes
“We Remember You”; the AFL-CIO’s tribute to Rich Trumka
Detroit Remains: Using historical archeology to connect the past to the present
The Memorial Day Massacre
Forced labour during the ”Dirty Thirties”
Blood, guts, and organizing
The Haymarket Martyrs Monument: Past, Present, Future
We Mean to Make Things Over: A History of May Day
The death of “Big Steve” Sutton
Working on Earth Day
Big Top Labor: Life and labor in the circus world
Michael Honey on Dr. King: “All Labor Has Dignity”
Industrial murder at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory
Jane Street and the Rebel Maids of Denver
Union women heroes, past and present
The Radicalism of Irish American Women
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Irish Songs with Ken Murray
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Historycal: Words that Shaped the World
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