William A. Pelz, Born in a working class-district on the south side of Chicago, William A. Pelz had hoped to pursue a career as a bus driver but later lowered his expectations and became an academic historian. A specialist in European and comparative labour history, Pelz is the editor of the Encylopedia of the European Left. Currently an untenured university teacher, he aspires to one day have a unionized job and earn as much as his machinist father did thirty years ago.