Looking for Work: A History of Unemployment [podcast 53 min]

With the unemployment rate at a 25-year high, BackStory is exploring the phenomenon of joblessness throughout American history. How has the changing nature of employment shaped the experience of not having a job? Have the moral connotations of work evolved? What has it meant for American workers that there are always new immigrants – or poor migrants – who are willing to work for less?

Over the course of the hour, the History Guys speak with historian Alex Keyssar, take calls from BackStory listeners, and hear an imagined testimonial from an itinerant worker in the "New Northwest" at the turn of the 20th century.