The Nelson N. Lichtenstein Wal-Mart Research Materials combines the papers and documents collected by Bob Ortega and Nelson N. Lichtenstein while working independently on projects related to Wal-Mart. While a reporter with the Wall Street Journal, Ortega began investigating the connection between the expansion of Wal-Mart and the resulting negative impact on local communities and businesses, as well as sweatshops and other topics. He published several related articles, with his work culminating in the publication of In Sam We Trust: The Untold Story of Sam Walton and How Wal-Mart Is Devouring America in 1998. Lichtenstein is a professor of history at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and director of the Center for the Study of Work, Labor and Democracy. He specializes in labor history. He wrote several books, including one on union leader Walter Reuther, before becoming interested in the Wal-Mart phenomenon. He organized a conference held in April 2004 at the University of California, Santa Barbara, titled “Wal-Mart: Template for the 21st Century Capitalism?”. The papers from this conference became chapters for the book Wal-Mart: The Face of Twenty-first-Century Capitalism, edited by Lichtenstein and published in 2006. In the course of doing research on Wal-Mart, Lichtenstein received Ortega's Wal-Mart materials. Lichtenstein's book, The Retail Revolution: How Wal-Mart Created a Brave New World of Business, was published in 2009.