The Employee Free Choice Act in the Context of Labor Laws History

Abstract

I have long held that historians’ credentials grant those of us possessing them little by way of insight into the future; studying the past requires one set of skills, predicting the future a rather different set. Historians can, of course, render a valuable service to those engaged in contemporary political battles through our explication of context for understanding the present and how we got here. But the context that we offer is always filtered through our perspectives—our values, politics, and disciplinary skills; it is, in essence, an argument. We often hear the expression “history teaches us that . . .”; it is a phrase used promiscuously by historians and nonhistorians alike.