David Brody

David Brody (born June 5, 1930) is an American historian, who is professor emeritus of history at the University of California-Davis.

Brody was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, to Barnet and Ida (Gulker) Brody, who were immigrants to the United States. Working his way through Harvard University, he received his bachelor's degree in 1952, a master's degree in 1953 and Ph.D. in 1958.

He married Susan Schapiro in 1955. The couple have two daughters and a son.

As Brody explains, he did not intend to become a labor historian:

Brody's research focuses on the American labor movement and American history. Along with David Montgomery and Herbert Gutman, he is credited with founding the field of "new labor history" in North America, which examined working-class culture rather than simply workers' organizations as a source of history.

Brody's most coherent statement of the "new labor history" can be found in his article titled "The Old Labor History and the New: In Search of an American Working Class" (Labor History, 20[1979]: 111–26).

Brody rose to prominence following the 1960 publication of his pioneering history of early steelworker unions, The Steelworkers in America: The Nonunion Era, a book based on his doctoral dissertation. He has written numerous articles and book-length treatments of the ethical, organizational and social construction of work and employment.

In recent years, Brody has focused on the origins and transformation of American labor law, labor law reform and weaknesses in the structure and interpretation of the National Labor Relations Act.

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