Where does the two-day weekend come from? In this standalone episode of Conflicted, we trace the historical trajectory of that oasis of leisure and free time we call “the weekend”. From its mystical beginnings in the religions of antiquity to its hard-fought development in Gilded Age America, we’ll untangle the surprising origins of everyone’s favorite part of the week.

SOURCES:

Hunnicutt, Benjamin. Free Time: The Forgotten American Dream. 2013.

Onstad, Katrina. The Weekend Effect. 2017.

Loomis, Erik. A History of America in Ten Strikes. 2018.

Murolo, Priscilla. Chitty, A.B. From the Folks Who Brought You the Weekend. 2001.

Green, James. Death in Haymarket. 2006.

Brecher, Jeremy. STRIKE! 1972.

Zinn, Howard. A People’s History of the United States. 1980.

Thomas, Gordan. Morgan-Witts, Max. The Day the Bubble Burst. 1979.

BBC. (2019, September 5). Who invented the weekend? BBC Bitesize.

Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia. “Presidential Speeches: Downloadable Data.” Accessed Feb 19, 2023. data.millercenter.org

Captivating History. The Industrial Revolution. 2020.

Grossman, Jonathan. “Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938: Maximum Struggle for a Minimum Wage.” Monthly Labor Review 101, no. 6 (1978): 22–30. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41840777.

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