2026 North American Labor History Conference

Michigan State University Press is excited to announce our upcoming attendance at the 2026 North American Labor History Conference, located at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan on October 14-17, 2027. The conference will be focusing on workers, unions and the role of government.

At the conference, MSU Press author Alan Reuther will be participating in an Author Meets Critics panel to discuss his book Roy Reuther and the UAW: Fighting for Workers and Civil Rights. The panel will be on Friday, October 16th from 10:45 to 12:15 P.M. in McGregor Room C. Copies of the book will be available for purchase at our table.

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Roy Reuther and the UAW

Fighting for Workers and Civil Rights

Alan Reuther

This biography of Roy Reuther examines his tumultuous life, including the triumphs and tragedies in the labor and civil rights movements. It also serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers that activists may face as they confront entrenched powers in society. As the brother of famed labor leader Walter Reuther, Roy was a key figure in many historic union battles, including the Flint sit-down strike that gave birth to the United Auto Workers.

Michigan's Con-Con 11

Women and State Constitution-making in 1961

Lynn Liberato

The contributions of the first female delegates to the 1961–1962 Michigan Constitutional Convention are highlighted in this new work. As the first all-woman contingent, these pioneers demonstrated that they were capable of helping to revise Michigan’s highest law and encouraged women to enter politics during a time when few women held public office.

We Kept Our Towns Going

The Gossard Girls of Michigan's Upper Peninsula

Phyllis Michael Wong

Phyllis Michael Wong tells the stories of the Gossard Girls, women who sewed corsets and bras at factories in Ishpeming and Gwinn from the early twentieth century to the 1970s. As the Upper Peninsula’s mines became increasingly exhausted and its stands of timber further depleted, the Gossard Girls’ income sustained both their families and the local economy.

When the River Burned

The Untold Story of the Jupiter Explosion

Joey Oliver

When the River Burned tells the story of the explosion of the tanker ship Jupiter, an often-overlooked chapter in Great Lakes maritime history. Drawing on newspaper archives, Coast Guard investigations, and eyewitness accounts, it reconstructs how a series of small oversights—in equipment, procedure, and human judgment—aligned to produce catastrophe.

Wrecked

The Edmund Fitzgerald and the Sinking of the American Economy

Thomas M Nelson, Jerald Podair

Wrecked links the story of America’s most infamous shipwreck to the story of an even larger disaster—the wreck of the American industrial economy. When the Edmund Fitzgerald went down in a Lake Superior storm on November 10, 1975, more was lost than the ship and the twenty-nine lives on board. The disaster was a human tragedy as well as an indictment of the American industrial policies that eventually cost the nation thousands of jobs and marooned hundreds of communities.

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