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Friedland (William H.) Papers
MS.076
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Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
University of California, Santa Cruz
Title: William H. Friedland Papers
Creator:
Friedland, William H.
Identifier/Call Number: MS.076
Physical Description:
15.5 Linear Feet
12 boxes
Physical Description:
0.56 GB
3 digital files
Date (inclusive): 1943-2017
Abstract: This collection documents the life,
work, and engaged scholarship of William Herbert Friedland, covering his early education and
work as a labor organizer with the United Auto Workers (UAW), his role founding the
Community Studies program at UC Santa Cruz, and his scholarship on the sociology of
agriculture. The collection contains writings from his undergraduate years, along with
notes, pamphlets, reports, and an FBI file from Friedland's time as a labor organizer with
the UAW while he was employed by the Hudson Motor Company in Detroit, MI. The collection
also documents his interest and work on labor songs. The bulk of the collection pertains to
Friedland's turn to academia in the mid-1950s, and especially his dedication to
socially-relevant research and engagement of students. The collection contains writings and
diaries from his dissertation fieldwork, as well as detailed field notes from students and
researchers involved in the Cornell Migrant Labor Project. The collection has materials
related to the founding of the UCSC Community Studies Program, including teaching files,
syllabi, student life information, and administrative correspondence. It also contains memos
and certificates regarding the founding and institutionalization of the Center for
Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems (CASFS) at UCSC, in which Friedland was involved.
The collection contains field notes, research interviews, project proposals, manuscripts,
and other contents that pertain to his work in the sociology of agriculture.
Language of Material:
English .
Collection open for research. Audiovisual media is unavailable until reformatted. Digital
files are available in the UCSC Special Collections and Archives reading room. Some files
may require reformatting before they can be accessed. Technical limitations may hinder the
Library's ability to provide access to some digital files. Access to digital files on
original carriers is prohibited; users must request to view access copies. Contact Special
Collections and Archives in advance to request access to audiovisual media and digital
files.
Copyright for the items in this collection is owned by the creators and their heirs.
Reproduction or distribution of any work protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair
use requires permission from the copyright owner. It is the responsibility of the user to
determine whether a use is fair use, and to obtain any necessary permissions. For more
information see UCSC Special Collections and Archives policy on Reproduction and Use. Note:
Upon donation of his field notes, William Friedland requested for "anyone using the material
in any way to assign pseudonyms to any person(s) mentioned in the field notes."
William H. Friedland papers. MS 76. Special Collections and Archives, University Library,
University of California, Santa Cruz.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of William Friedland, 1995, and transfer from Sociology department, 2018.
William Herbert Friedland was a labor organizer, educator, researcher of the sociology of
agriculture, and founder of the Community Studies program at UC Santa Cruz, which he
established in 1969. While at UCSC, Friedland conducted groundbreaking research in what is
now considered the sociology of agriculture, for which he is considered one of the founders.
In his earlier life, he worked as a labor organizer with the United Auto Workers in
automobile assembly plants in Detroit, Michigan. In 2005, Friedland received a lifetime
achievement award from the Rural Sociological Society, and in 2012 he was named
Distinguished Rural Sociologist by the Rural Sociological Society. Friedland also received
the UC's first Distinguished Social Sciences Emeriti Faculty Award in 2007 in recognition of
his impact as an educator and scholar. William Friedland passed away in 2018.
Born in 1923 in Staten Island, New York to Russian Jewish immigrants, William "Bill"
Friedland was deeply involved with working class labor movements and joined the Shachtmanite
Trotskyists (the Workers Party) during his time at Wagner College. Friedland then began
working as a labor organizer with the United Auto Workers while he was employed by the
Hudson Motor Company in Detroit, Michigan. He recorded two albums of labor songs in
collaboration with Joe Glazer,
Songs of the Wobblies and
Ballads for
Sectarians
. In the 1950s, he returned to academia, completing his bachelor's
degree at Wayne State University and then obtaining a PhD from the University of California,
Berkeley. His dissertation focused on trade unionism in Tanganyika (now Tanzania). Friedland
then began his career as an academic at Cornell University where he established the Cornell
Migrant Labor Project. He transitioned to the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1969,
where he continued his commitment to student-engaged work by establishing the Community
Studies program. Friedland conducted research on the sociology of agriculture, much of which
centered on the study of agricultural commodities such as lettuce, tomatoes, citrus, and
grapes. This work led him to research the University of California's role in agricultural
mechanization, culminating in the 1978 tomato harvester lawsuit against the UC, which his
team initially won but then lost on appeal. Friedland's books include
The Knowledge
Factory: Student Power and Academic Politics
(1972),
Manufacturing Green
Gold: Capital, Labor, and Technology in the Lettuce Industry
(1981),
Revolutionary Theory (1982), and
Towards a New Political Economy of
Agriculture
(1991). Friedland passed away in Santa Cruz, California at the age of
94 on February 20, 2018. He was survived by his wife, Joan Friedland, their three children,
Liam, Fiona, and Nicole, and one grandchild, Skyler.
This collection documents the life, work, and engaged scholarship of William Herbert
Friedland, covering his early education and work as a labor organizer with the United Auto
Workers (UAW), his role founding the Community Studies program at UC Santa Cruz, and his
scholarship on the sociology of agriculture. The collection contains writings from his
undergraduate years, along with notes, pamphlets, reports, and an FBI file from Friedland's
time as a labor organizer with the UAW while he was employed by the Hudson Motor Company in
Detroit, MI. The collection also documents his interest and work on labor songs. The bulk of
the collection pertains to Friedland's turn to academia in the mid-1950s, and especially his
dedication to socially-relevant research and engagement of students. The collection contains
writings and diaries from his dissertation fieldwork, as well as detailed field notes from
students and researchers involved in the Cornell Migrant Labor Project. The collection has
materials related to the founding of the UCSC Community Studies Program, including teaching
files, syllabi, student life information, and administrative correspondence. It also
contains memos and certificates regarding the founding and institutionalization of the
Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems (CASFS) at UCSC, in which Friedland
was involved. The collection contains field notes, research interviews, project proposals,
manuscripts, and other contents that pertain to his work in the sociology of agriculture. It
also contains his work on the 1978 UC tomato harvester lawsuit. Finally, the collection
contains hundreds of personal and academic correspondence, mainly in the form of printed
emails.
This collection is arranged in five series:
- Series 1: Education and Labor Organizing
- Series 2: Cornell Migrant Labor Project, Community Studies, and UC Santa Cruz
- Series 3: Research files
- Series 4: Correspondence
- Series 5: Personal files
This collection was processed by Summer Sullivan, Riley Collins, and Alix Norton in the
Center for Archival Research and Training (CART), 2022-2023. Most titles in this collection
were derived from the original folder titles as received from the donor. Digital materials
processed by Alix Norton, 2023. Digital files were transferred from carrier disks, files
were not reformatted, and file names are original to the creator. Original disks were
retained and are included in the collection.
The oral history of William Friedland,
Community Studies and Research for Change: An
Oral History with William Friedland
, was conducted by Sarah Rabkin and published
in 2013 by the Regional History Project, UCSC Library. Available online at
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6zq1v27w
A selection of Friedland's published works may be found in the UCSC Library by searching
"Friedland, William H." in the Author/creator field in UCSC Library Search.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Migrant agricultural laborers --
California
Farmers -- California -- Santa Cruz
County
Labor unions
Agriculture -- California
Agricultural ecology
Faculty papers
Field notes