📚 The American Proletariat Canon

Organizational Framework

I. Political Power & the State

People who held formal governing power or shaped state policy directly.

A. Presidents & Founding Figures

(State power, labor alignment, empire, slavery, capital)

• Franklin D. Roosevelt
  
  

• Lyndon B. Johnson
  
  

• Abraham Lincoln
  
  

• Ulysses S. Grant
  
  

• Theodore Roosevelt
  
  

• Harry S. Truman
  
  

• John Adams
  
  

• John Quincy Adams
  
  

• Thomas Jefferson
  
  

• James Madison
  
  

• James Monroe
  
  

• George Washington
  
  

• Andrew Jackson
  
  

• James K. Polk
  
  

• James Buchanan
  
  

• Andrew Johnson
  
  

• Rutherford B. Hayes
  
  

• Chester A. Arthur
  
  

• Benjamin Harrison
  
  

• Grover Cleveland
  
  

• William McKinley
  
  

• Theodore Roosevelt
  
  

• William Howard Taft
  
  

• Woodrow Wilson
  
  

• Calvin Coolidge
  
  

• Herbert Hoover
  
  

• Franklin Pierce
  
  

• Millard Fillmore
  
  

• Zachary Taylor
  
  

• John Tyler
  
  

• William Henry Harrison
  
  

• Gerald Ford
  
  

• Jimmy Carter
  
  

• Ronald Reagan
  
  

• George H. W. Bush
  
  

• Bill Clinton
  
  

• George W. Bush
  
  

• Barack Obama
  
  

• Joe Biden
  
  

• Donald Trump
  
  

B. Reformers, Abolitionists & Civil Rights Leaders

(Mass politics, organized labor, moral confrontation)

• Harriet Tubman
  
  

• Frederick Douglass
  
  

• Rosa Parks
  
  

• Martin Luther King Jr.
  
  

• Fannie Lou Hamer
  
  

• Barbara Jordan
  
  

• Shirley Chisholm
  
  

• Jane Addams
  
  

• Susan B. Anthony
  
  

• Nellie Bly
  
  

• Marsha P. Johnson
  
  

• Bob Emmett Fletcher
  
  

• Chief Seattle
  
  

• Salmon P. Chase
  
  

C. Contemporary Politicians & Power Brokers

(Modern labor alignment, populism, reaction, technocracy)

• Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
  
  

• Bernie Sanders
  
  

• Andy Beshear
  
  

• J. B. Pritzker
  
  

• Marie Glusenkamp Perez
  
  

• Kamala Harris
  
  

• J. D. Vance
  
  

• Marjorie Taylor Greene
  
  

• Claudia Sheinbaum
  
  

• James Talarico
  
  

• Charlie Kirk
  
  

II. Capital, Industry & Elite Power

People who shaped capitalism, ownership, or extraction.

A. Industrialists & Financiers

(Monopoly, rent, enclosure, elite stabilization)

• Cornelius Vanderbilt
  
  

• John D. Rockefeller
  
  

• J. P. Morgan
  
  

• John Jacob Astor
  
  

• Henry Ford
  
  

• Jamie Dimon
  
  

• William Randolph Hearst
  
  

• P. T. Barnum
  
  

B. Innovators, Technocrats & Creative Capitalists

(Labor vs ownership in “genius” culture)

• Thomas Edison
  
  

• Steve Jobs
  
  

• Walt Disney
  
  

• Andy Warhol
  
  

• Frank Lloyd Wright
  
  

III. Monarchy, Empire & Pre-Modern Power

Rulers whose actions shaped labor, hierarchy, or resistance.

A. Queens, Empresses & Female Sovereigns

(Power, legitimacy, survival, contradiction)

• Fredegund
  
  

• Brunhilde of Austrasia
  
  

• Boudicca
  
  

• Marie Theresa of Austria
  
  

• Queen Kristina of Sweden
  
  

• Eleanor of Aquitaine
  
  

• Wu Zetian
  
  

• Catherine de Medici
  
  

• Marie Antoinette
  
  

• Queen Liliʻuokalani
  
  

• Queen Wilhelmina
  
  

• Queen Elizabeth I
  
  

• Cleopatra
  
  

• Dido of Carthage
  
  

B. Kings, Conquerors & Imperial Figures

(Empire, extraction, collapse)

• Kamehameha
  
  

• Montezuma
  
  

• Pachacuti
  
  

• Hiawatha
  
  

• Ragnar Lothbrok
  
  

• Brigham Young
  
  

• Robert E. Lee
  
  

IV. Cultural Labor, Icons & Celebrity

Figures whose bodies, voices, or personas became workplaces.

A. Music & Performance (Creative Labor)

• Britney Spears
  
  

• Kesha
  
  

• Lady Gaga
  
  

• Cher
  
  

• Taylor Swift
  
  

• Nicki Minaj (post-MAGA analysis)
  
  

• Chappell Roan
  
  

• Madonna
  
  

• Beyoncé
  
  

• Dolly Parton
  
  

• Cardi B
  
  

• RuPaul
  
  

B. Film, Television & Media Icons

(Visibility, exploitation, endurance)

• Marilyn Monroe
  
  

• Anna Nicole Smith
  
  

• Betty White
  
  

• Jennifer Aniston
  
  

• Lindsay Lohan
  
  

• Oprah Winfrey
  
  

• Paris Hilton
  
  

• Martha Stewart
  
  

• Arnold Schwarzenegger
  
  

C. Writers, Thinkers & Intellectual Labor

(Satire, critique, conscience)

• Mark Twain
  
  

• Ernest Hemingway
  
  

• Albert Einstein
  
  

V. Outlaws, Pirates & Folk Figures

(Extra-legal survival, myth vs labor)

• Anne Bonny
  
  

• Edward Teach (Blackbeard)
  
  

• Daniel Boone
  
  

• Sacajawea
  
  

• Pocahontas
  
  

• The Unsinkable Molly Brown
  
  

VI. Women, Gender & Labor-Specific Analysis

(Bodies as workplaces, care, coercion, refusal)
(Cross-listed category used for thematic navigation)

• Anna Nicole Smith
  
  

• Britney Spears
  
  

• Marilyn Monroe
  
  

• Susan B. Anthony
  
  

• Rosa Parks
  
  

• Cher
  
  

• Taylor Swift
  
  

• Chappell Roan
  
  

• Madonna
  
  

• Lady Gaga
  
  

VII. Future Sections (Planned)

Reserved and ready.

A. Characters (Fictional)

• Mythological figures
  
  

• Literary protagonists
  
  

• Film & TV characters
  
  

B. Fairy Tales & Folklore

• Queens & witches
  
  

• Labor metaphors (mills, spindles, bargains)
  
  

• Moral economies vs extraction myths
  
  

C. Archetypes

• The Worker
  
  

• The King
  
  

• The Trickster
  
  

• The Martyr
  
  

• The Gatekeeper