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First published in Journal of Working-Class Studies, v11 n1 published by the Working-Class Studies Association. DOI: https://doi.org/10.13001/jwcs.v11i1.10652

Document Type

Article

Publication Version

Published Version

Keywords

Working-Class, Labor history, Ancient History, Sociology

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Journal of Working-Class Studies

Volume

11

Issue

1

First Page

125

Last Page

146

Abstract

This article highlights four historical events that shape our present: the world’s first industrial strike in ancient Egypt to protest workers’ health and safety; working-class efforts to improve labor conditions during the Roman Republic and Middle Ages through strikes and the creation of guilds; the social justice activism of the prophets of Western religions (all working-class folks!); and the creation of the selfie and the transition from a culture of character to our present obsession with celebrities and individualism that began during the Renaissance. Each case highlights unique features of working-class culture, working class reactions to societal changes, and the success of working-class resistance efforts. What all these different events have in common is that they demonstrate the historical persistence of working-class culture which, I believe, remains Western civilization’s greatest asset.

Department

Department of History

Original Publication Date

6-2026

Object Description

1 PDF File

DOI of published version

10.13001/jwcs.v11i1.10652

Repository

UNI ScholarWorks, Rod Library, University of Northern Iowa

Copyright

©2026 The Author(s)

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Language

eng

File Format

application/pdf

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