Includes bibliographical references (pages [175]-178) and index.
Series foreword -- Introduction -- 1. Mary Prince's History of Mary Prince, a West Indian slave -- 2. Charles Dickens's Hard times -- 3. Herman Melville's "The paradise of bachelors and the Tartarus of maids" -- 4. Rebecca Harding Davis's Life in the iron mills -- 5. Herman Melville's "Bartelby the scrivener: a story of Wall Street" -- 6. Upton Sinclair's The jungle -- 7. John Steinbeck's The grapes of wrath -- 8. Studs Terkel's Working -- 9. Zilpha Snyder's The velvet room, Joan Bauer's Hope was here, and Anne Mazer's Working days