ABSTRACT
In Manhattan, in 1969, hard-hatted construction workers confronted anti-war protesters in what the media widely advertised as a clash between “working men” and college kids. Skilled white working men, the construction workers wore hats decorated with the American flag, yelled obscenities, and roughed up the protesters, who were privileged, white, male, and critical of their government. The Nixon administration prided itself on winning the allegiance of white workers, even while their Democratic opposition could not muster the votes of anti-war youth. As a symbol of the conservatism and patriotic fervor of the working class, the hard-hat protests signaled that the political spectrum had shifted to the right, even while the labor movement’s power to hold workers’ political loyalties waned. 1
