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Research project: IWW (Industrial Workers of the World)

The Industrial Workers of the World was founded in 1905 and advocated militant unionism,  racial equality, and the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism. They were the most radical, and in many circles, hated and feared, social movement of the early 20th century.  Press coverage was almost entirely negative and some newspapers fabricated reports of sabotage, violence, and dangerous conspiracies.  The hysteria grew even louder in 1917 when the US entered World War I. The assignment is to investigate the campaign against the IWW by reading articles from a selection of newspapers. The assignment has three parts: (1) choose a single year (either 1916 or 1917) and read articles from various newspapers in the ProQuest searches linked below and record information in an excel database; (2) read a recommended secondary source (book) listed below; (3) write a 8-10 page paper about the campaign against IWW focusing in part on the year you have chosen using information from both the secondary and primary sources

Research questions: What did the newspapers available to you report about IWW actions and ideology? Paying attention to the tone and perspective of the writers and newspapers, evaluate and compare the coverage of several newspapers. Hint: The Los Angeles Times was probably the most antagonistic. What does your secondary source say about the organization during these years? What does it say about press coverage?

 Primary source research (newspapers):

 1) Begin by downloading this research database-excel-1.xlsx Download research database-excel-1.xlsx

 2) We are using ProQuest Historical Newspapers for newspaper searches. Below is the link to the pre-arranged databases of newspaper articles that you should use. It delivers articles from newspapers and magazines related to this topic. 

a) you should see a page like this. If not, you may need to click the Library's login button top right and enter your UW-net ID

proquest results1.png

 

b) scroll the titles of articles, clicking on those that seem most relevant. Some will be mistaken entries triggered by the search terms. Others will be too short to be useful. Download copies of all articles that might be useful or interesting. It is more efficient to download them than to read them in ProQuest. 

c) use "back to results" to return to the search results.

proquest results4.png

d) you can filter results using the menus on left side. Sorted by "oldest first" means the entries are in chronological order. "Relevance" is the other option. You can also open the Publication title menu and select articles from particular newspapers.

proquest results2.png

 

3) After downloading many articles, add at least 20 to your research database-excel-1.xlsx Download research database-excel-1.xlsx and write a short description of the event or issue described in each article. Feel free to add additional information in other columns. Your spreadsheet needs to include no less than 20 articles. You will submit the research database along with your paper.

4)  Please DO NOT save or delete the ProQuest search. Others will not be able to use it.

 

 

Secondary source research (books):

 5) Obtain and read one or more books. Several are listed below. Others can be identified in  UW Library catalog http://www.lib.washington.edu/ 

E-Book
The wobblies in their heyday : the rise and destruction of the industrial workers of the world during the World War I era  (Links to an external site.)
by Eric Thomas Chester (also available as Print Book  Odegaard Library course reserves)

E-Book
Rebels of the woods; the I.W.W. in the Pacific Northwest (Links to an external site.), 
by Robert L. Tyler  (also Odegaard Library course reserves)

http://intylergence.com/rebels/index-1.htm (Links to an external site.)