Dr. Jason Resnikoff explains that the rise of automation in the mid-20th century workplace was heralded as a way to free workers from manual labor, but resulted instead in the intensification of human labor and the degradation of workers’ protections and powers. Resnikoff is a core lecturer in the History Department at Columbia University and author of Labor’s End: How the Promise of Automation Degraded Work.

Related Collections:
UAW archival collections
Detroit Revolutionary Movements Records
James and Grace Lee Boggs Papers

Related Resources:
Labor’s End: How the Promise of Automation Degraded Work

Episode Credits

Producers: Dan Golodner and Troy Eller English

Interviewee: Jason Resnikoff

Music: Bart Bealmear