Lore's Labors Lost: Archie Green's Restoration of Worlds of Labor

Abstract

Archie Green, our discipline's grand mentor and progenitor of the study of labor folklore and workers' expressive culture, turned ninety in 2007. In the last five years he has issued four new books, each bringing to fruition years of research and fieldwork, thinking and dialogue. These late editions hone Archie's unique approach to the study of labor culture termed laborlore and demonstrate his continuing passion for and refreshing insight into worlds of organized labor. To be sure, organized labor, or more broadly the world of work, is fraught with tensions and puzzles from both political and scholarly points of view. In an article published twenty years ago Archie asked, Who treasures tales of work?1 It is a question that has recurred in different guises throughout his later writing and public work, seek-