American Occupational Folklife

In the past, folklorists often approached the study of occupational folklife through a single trade or occupation or through a political lens that prioritized factory floors and union activities. While both approaches resulted in important scholarship, neither fully reflected the complex, multifaceted relationships contemporary Americans have with their jobs. In contemporary life, the majority of workers hold a series of jobs during their careers. Sometimes these “career arcs” are related to a worker’s professional training, but just as often they are not. In addition, the boundaries between work and nonwork have blurred as technology, working women, the diversification of the workforce, and evolving workspaces have transformed the once iconic eight-hour workday into different, arguably preindustrial, patterns. These rapid shifts have made the use of occupational folklore, on-the-job traditions, orally transmitted knowledge, and job-centered narratives all the more important in training and acclimating workers, and in ordering and authenticating contemporary workplaces. This evolving “workscape” has also made it increasingly important for folklorists to approach the study of occupational folklife in a nuanced, multifaceted way.

Going Public: Archie Green's Lifelong Commitment to Laboring Culture

Known as the “Dean of Laborlore,” Archie Green, who died this past March, spent much of the twentieth century developing innovative public sector projects at the intersection of labor history, occupational folklore, and cultural studies. In 1971, for example, he helped initiate the Working Americans Exhibition on the Washington Mall of the United States Capitol. Using this exhibit as a starting point, this article examines Green's orientation to publicly presenting labor culture and history. I draw from Robert McCarl's reflections on the challenges of the Working Americans Exhibit and suggest that several life experiences uniquely qualified Archie Green to meet these challenges. Excerpting from interviews with Green, I explore how his childhood in East Los Angeles combined with his years as a union shipwright in San Francisco to develop a strong analysis of, and civic commitment to, public workers' folklife. Central to this commitment is a generative, if uneasy, pairing of syndicalist ideals with pragmatic New Deal-inspired politics. I examine how immigrant Scottish shipwrights, educated in the militant syndicalist and Marxist tradition of John Maclean, particularly influenced Green. Raising questions of historiography, I conclude by suggesting we should view Green's integration of scholarly and public sector work as vitally contributing to the emergent cultural sensibility in New Labor History, folklore, American Studies, and public history in the late 1960s and 1970s.