American labor unions struggled to adjust to the changing dynamics of the world economy during the mid-to-late twentieth century. Charting this complex process is Dr. Melanie Sheehan, assistant professor of history at Hartwick College and recent Hagley-NEH postdoctoral fellow.

Sheehan has discovered that during the post-WWII moment, union economists supported trade liberalization as a means of multiplying the comparative advantages enjoyed by U.S. producers and exporters so long as it was accompanied by aid to impacted industries and displaced workers. However, while trade liberalization proceeded apace, and foreign competition rapidly gained ground against American made goods, the planned and hoped-for aid failed to materialize. This forced unions to reassess their commitment to liberal trade policies, as their industries, first textiles, then steel, and finally automotives, faced the implications of increasingly efficient foreign competition.

In support of her work Dr. Sheehan received funding from the Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society at the Hagley Museum and Library, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. For more information, and more Hagley History Hangouts, visit us online at hagley.org.

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