The journal is deeply indebted to Tom Klubock and Paulo Fontes for their intellectual and organizational work on making this extraordinary special issue, “Public History and Labor History,” a reality. The issue reveals the rich variety of public history practiced around the world reflecting on aspects of labor and working-class history. They conceived the theme over two years ago, cast their net widely in search of relevant and stimulating material, made the difficult choices among many outstanding submissions, and then, coordinating with ILWCH managing editor, Andrea Estepa, and ILWCH senior editor, Peter Winn, helped turn abstracts and initial drafts into the wide-ranging and provocative set of articles that comprise ILWCH 76. Featured are articles and reports on public history and labor history in Brazil, Sweden, Denmark, the Caribbean, Australia, the United States, and the UK, as well as an interview with filmmaker John Sayles and a review of The Big Red Songbook. The issue also includes Alexis Rappas's essay, “The ‘Labor Question’ and the Legitimation of an Alternative Anti-colonial Discourse in Cyprus.” In it, Rappas explores the emergence and limits of new labor militancy and worker solidarities in the late 1930s and 1940s, the different views of Cypriot society that underlay the recognition and discursive construction of a labor question by the Cypriot press, and the refusal of British colonial authorities to acknowledge an emerging working class and its claims.

We are pleased to announce plans for upcoming issues for the next two years and beyond. ILWCH 77 (Spring 2010) will feature articles drawn from the 2008 “Labouring Feminism” conference in Sweden and other essays on gendered activism and the politics of women's work. It will also offer three essays reconsidering the work of Frank Tannenbaum, including his two books on the United States labor movement, his work on Mexican peasants and the Mexican Revolution, and his classic study, Slave and Citizen (1947). ILWCH 78 (Fall 2010), edited by Carolyn Brown and Marcel van der Linden, will be devoted to “Free and Unfree Labor in the Global South.” ILWCH 79 (Spring 2011), edited by Prasannan Parthasarathi and Don Quataert, will focus on “Labor Migration in the Middle East.” Future review essays and special issues in development will consider global commodities; labor and the environment; and the global economic crisis of capitalism.

The journal wishes to thank Andrea Estepa, the journal's managing editor, for her intellectual contributions and energetic leadership during the journal's first year at Rutgers. It was an enormously challenging year and she managed it all with grace and wit. We welcome Allison Miller, the journal's new managing editor, who will navigate the journal during our second year at Rutgers.