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The meaning of work in women's lives -- Household labor -- Working for wages -- Women's social mission -- Changing the shape of the workforce -- Equality and freedom at odds

I count myself among those disappointed in Barack Obama's presidency so far. I had not expected miracles, but I had
hoped for a more dramatic turnaround in our politics: for an end to the war in Afghanistan; a rapid closing of
Guantánamo; and a denunciation of torture, rendition, and the endless pursuit of an elusive and protean terrorism. On
Election Day last year, I anticipated a more generous health care bill and a restoration of modest regulations on banks
and financial investment firms. Obama led us to expect these things of him when, in his mellifluous and powerful
voice, he advocated "change you can believe in." I understood candidate Obama's call to be not simply one of political
style—not simply a cry to throw the scoundrels out. I wanted to believe that it was also a call to recalibrate our moral
compass.

Vera Shlakman had an extraordinary effect on my work and on that of a generation of labor historians. Quietly, unobtrusively her interpretive insights and the methodological innovations she introduced paved the way to a more eclectic and integrated discipline. A full seventy years after its publication in 1935, her Economic History of a Factory Town: A Study of Chicopee, Massachusetts still provides an intellectual and conceptual guide, not only to a changing field, but to the persistent questions it raises.