Fight Like Hell

The Untold History of American Labor

By: Kim Kelly

Narrated by: Em Grosland

Named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker and Esquire

This revelatory and inclusive book “unearths the stories of the people—farm laborers, domestic workers, factory employees—behind some of the labor movement’s biggest successes” (The New York Times) from independent journalist and Teen Vogue labor columnist Kim Kelly.

Freed Black women organizing for protection in the Reconstruction-era South. Jewish immigrant garment workers braving deadly conditions for a sliver of independence. Asian American fieldworkers rejecting government-sanctioned indentured servitude across the Pacific. Incarcerated workers advocating for basic human rights and fair wages. The queer Black labor leader who helped orchestrate America’s civil rights movement. These are only some of the heroes who propelled American labor’s relentless push for fairness and equal protection under the law.

The names and faces of countless silenced, misrepresented, or forgotten leaders have been erased by time as a privileged few decide which stories get cut from the final copy: those of women, people of color, LGBTQIA people, disabled people, sex workers, prisoners, and the poor. In this definitive and assiduously researched “thought-provoking must-read” (Liz Shuler, AFL-CIO president), Teen Vogue columnist and independent labor reporter Kim Kelly excavates that untold history and shows how the rights the American worker has today—the forty-hour workweek, workplace-safety standards, restrictions on child labor, protection from harassment and discrimination on the job—were earned with literal blood, sweat, and tears.

Fight Like Hell comes at a time of economic reckoning in America. From Amazon’s warehouses to Starbucks cafes, Appalachian coal mines to the sex workers of Portland’s Stripper Strike, interest in organized labor is at a fever pitch not seen since the early 1960s. Inspirational, intersectional, and full of crucial lessons from the past, Fight Like Hell is “essential reading for anyone who believes that workers should control their fate” (Shane Burley, author of Why We Fight).

Critic reviews

"Narrator Em Grosland keeps these riveting stories of labor organizing moving along at a consistent, somewhat rhythmic pace that nicely complements the writing."

A People’s American Labor History

“We stand on the shoulders of giants”. Anyone involved in labor organizing recognizes the importance of all previous fights for labor rights. While the bosses never stop trying to reduce or eliminate workers' power, and while the fight never ends, even a labor action that ends in defeat advances the cause. This is a story of 200 years of American labor action and the men and women who fought in those conflicts. A few names are well known. Most names are unknown to the general public. A few names would be lost to history without this book.
Kim Kelly tells the inspiring tale of the fight for workers’ rights and their leaders who often staked everything standing up to the rich and powerful.
The review is well-timed in this moment of labor unrest. With the “Great Resignation” and “Striketober” of 2021 in the recent past and organizing now where it has never gone before, the story of past fights should be illuminating to organizing workers, as well as, to those wondering what is going on.
Kudos to Kelly for a needed, well-written book.

Amazing History For The Future

Kim Kelly tells real labor history in this amazing work. Required reading for anyone who cares about the working class.

Really well organized primer on US labor history

Enjoyed this very much! Kelly connects contemporary labor movements to the pioneers of labor organizing across segments of time, space, and intersectional identities.

Aspirational and inspirational

A history of working folks fighting for decent lives. We need to hear these stories, particularly as the oligarchs are trying to cement their control over us. We outnumber them. This book helps us remember that.

History that had me on the Edge of my Seat!

Outstanding storytelling from both the author and narrators “Fight Like Hell” had me on the edge of my seat with some of what should be the most important history among the working public in the United States.