The 20th century ushered in a change from handcrafting to machine tooling. Henry Ford introduced one of the first moving assembly lines as a way to turn out more cars more quickly, and the emerging auto industry popularized this mode. A photo of the Doble Steam Motors Corporation factory shows a line of workers and car chassis in production. This new technology, and the spread of industrialization, changed forever the way that work was completed. A wide variety of industries all across the country converted to mechanization, and California was no exception. One 1929 image shows young women working in a towel factory in Orange. Photographs taken in San Francisco illustrate that workers used machines to make products as different as Ghirardelli Chocolate and music rolls for automated player pianos. Images also show women working on an assembly line in a soap factory, and men sewing clothes in a shop (at a time when a good suit, cut on machines instead of by hand, retailed for $40 to $50). Automation and mechanization also changed agricultural practices. The combined traction steam harvester built by Stockton J. Barry on his California ranch was one of the machines that changed the way produce was harvested. Mechanized canning changed the way fruit and vegetables were processed and preserved, and made out-of-season produce available year round. Photographs in this group show cannery workers at tables, and cans going through a labeling machine. The introduction of mechanized food processing eventually brought a new awareness of the importance of standards for foods production. The Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act were both passed in 1906. As workers nationwide adjusted to an increasingly mechanized workplace, good working conditions took on new importance. Workers in several industries formed unions (such as the Berryessa Fruit Growers formed in 1920, shown here) to promote safer working conditions and limit maximum working hours.

Small-group study of advanced subjects under staff supervision. For graduate students wishing to pursue further study in advanced areas of urban studies and city and regional planning not covered in regular subjects of instruction. 11.941 and 11.955 are taught P/D/F.

In economics, the term 'labor' refers to workers. As a factor of production, labor earns wages for the services that it renders. As such, students of labor economics have traditionally set out to understand wage formation, the level of employment, and all elements that go into the making of a wage relationship. Over the years, the social and economic contexts in which labor markets operate have become increasingly complex; nowadays, labor economics is no longer limited to the study of wages. Modern labor economics instead seeks to understand the complex workings of the labor market by studying the dynamics between employers, employees, and their wage-, price-, and profit-making incentives. In other words, modern labor economics explores the outcomes of the labor market under the assumption that workers strive to maximize their wellbeing and firms strive to maximize profits. It also analyzes the behavior of employers and employees and studies their responses to changes in government policies and/or in the demographic composition of the labor force. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to: Demonstrate an understanding of basic labor economics theory, including labor market structures and wage determination; Apply their understanding of theoretical models to analyze trends in data pertaining to topics in labor economics; Apply their understanding of theoretical models to case studies presented in the course; Construct, defend, and analyze important labor policy issues; Comprehend, assess, and criticize existing empirical work in labor economics. (Economics 303)

The aim of this course is to acquaint students with traditional topics in labor economics and to encourage the development of independent research interests. We will cover a systematic development of the theory of labor supply, labor demand, and human capital. Topics include wage and employment determination, turnover, search, immigration, unemployment, equalizing differences, and institutions in the labor market. There will be particular emphasis on the interaction between theoretical and empirical modeling.

Prosperity and Thrift: The Coolidge Era and the Consumer Economy, 1921-1929 assembles a wide array of Library of Congress source materials from the 1920s that document the widespread prosperity of the Coolidge years, the nation's transition to a mass consumer economy, and the role of government in this transition. The collection includes nearly 150 selections from twelve collections of personal papers and two collections of institutional papers from the Manuscript Division; 74 books, pamphlets, and legislative documents from the General Collections, along with selections from 34 consumer and trade journals; 185 photographs from the Prints and Photographs Division and the Manuscript Division; and 5 short films and 7 audio selections of Coolidge speeches from the Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division. The collection is particularly strong in advertising and mass-marketing materials and will be of special interest to those seeking to understand economic and political forces at work in the 1920s.

This course is a survey of American History from the Age of Exploration and Discovery to the present. The material is designed to cover 2 semesters and content covers discovery and settlement of the New World, the formation of the nation, nationalism and expansion, Jeffersonian Republicanism, the Age of Jackson, the Civil War, Reconstruction, westward expansion, the Gilded Age, rise of unions, the Progressive Age, World War I, the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, World War II, the Cold War, Civil Rights Movement, and the Imperial Presidency.

This site provides primary source documents that students use to examine the working conditions of U.S. laborers at the turn of the century and to develop their own answers to a question: Was there a need for organized labor unions?