This course examines how work and workers have changed in Canada in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Together we explore relations between workers and employers, the history of the labour movement (the people who brought you weekends!), industrialization, the changing culture of the working class, gender and race in the workplace, and the effect of economic change and technology on working people.

The history of working people has always been the history of the masses -- history from below. That's why I feel a Wiki assignment would fit particularly well in this class. I intend to have students write/improve articles in small groups. I have identified a few topics that are notable and in need of improvement, including key government commissions on the relations of capital and labour and on immigrant workers. There are reliable and scholarly articles and books available about these Royal Commissions, but some of them do not have articles on Wikipedia yet. This seems like an excellent opportunity for students to conduct research and contribute to the encyclopedia.