What We Hold in Common: An Introduction to Working Class Studies

Working-class history and literature have too often been ignored in traditional curricula, have remained invisible in most textbooks, and have been unavailable to students and teachers. Essential reading for all interested in the rapidly growing field of working-class studies, this book offers a combination of primary voices, critical essays, and resources for curriculum transformation. It deepens the understanding of working-class writings, history, culture, and artistic production, while providing literature that captures the material conditions of working-class peoples’ lives. Janet Zandy brings together – in poetry, fiction, memoir, and song – the voices of working-class people, with a strong emphasis on the often overlooked voices of working-class women. Critical essays place working-class studies in perspective for teacher and student, as scholars in the field write about recovering autobiographies and oral histories, practising working-class studies, and current and emerging texts and theories.