The following essay examines the congruence of American labor and social history scholarship with actualworking-classexperiences. Particularly, it compares an author's immersion in a masculine working-class environment with recent ideas in historical research about the interplay of gender and work. The author argues that the challenge of working on a fast-paced loading dock with male coworkers was made less onerous by the free expression of working-class male behaviors. Sexual kidding, physical posturing, and profanity, sometimes accentuated with crude but appreciable wit, made the demanding labor more bearable, a theme borne out by recent scholarship on masculinity and the workplace.
Baron, Ava, ed. 1991. Work engendered: Toward a new history of American labour. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
2.
Freeman, Joshua B.1993. Hardhats: Construction workers, manliness, and the 1970 pro-war demonstrations. Journal of Social History26: 725-744.
3.
Meyer, Steven.2002. Rough manhood: The aggressive and confrontational shop culture of U.S. auto workers during World War II. Journal of Social History36 (1): 125-147.
4.
Rotundo, E. Anthony.1993. American manhood. New York: Basic Books.
5.
Way, Peter.1993. Common labour: The digging of North American canals: 1780-1860.New York: Cambridge University Press.
