State of the Union
A Century of American Labor
Seiten
2003
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-0-691-11654-9 (ISBN)
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-0-691-11654-9 (ISBN)
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Examines how trade unionism has waxed and waned in the nation's political and moral imagination, among both devoted partisans and intransigent foes. This book offers a survey of labor's upsurge during the 1930s, when the New Deal put a white, male version of industrial democracy at the heart of US political culture.
In a fresh and timely reinterpretation, Nelson Lichtenstein examines how trade unionism has waxed and waned in the nation's political and moral imagination, among both devoted partisans and intransigent foes. From the steel foundry to the burger-grill, from Woodrow Wilson to John Sweeney, from Homestead to Pittston, Lichtenstein weaves together a compelling matrix of ideas, stories, strikes, laws, and people in a streamlined narrative of work and labor in the twentieth century. The 'labor question' became a burning issue during the Progressive Era because its solution seemed essential to the survival of American democracy itself. Beginning there, Lichtenstein takes us all the way to the organizing fever of contemporary Los Angeles, where the labor movement stands at the center of the effort to transform millions of new immigrants into alert citizen unionists. He offers an expansive survey of labor's upsurge during the 1930s, when the New Deal put a white, male version of industrial democracy at the heart of U.S. political culture. He debunks the myth of a postwar 'management-labor accord' by showing that there was (at most) a limited, unstable truce.Lichtenstein argues that the ideas that had once sustained solidarity and citizenship in the world of work underwent a radical transformation when the rights-centered social movements of the 1960s and 1970s captured the nation's moral imagination.
The labor movement was therefore tragically unprepared for the years of Reagan and Clinton: although technological change and a new era of global economics battered the unions, their real failure was one of ideas and political will. Throughout, Lichtenstein argues that labor's most important function, in theory if not always in practice, has been the vitalization of a democratic ethos, at work and in the larger society. To the extent that the unions fuse their purpose with that impulse, they can once again become central to the fate of the republic. "State of the Union" is an incisive history that tells the story of one of America's defining aspirations.
In a fresh and timely reinterpretation, Nelson Lichtenstein examines how trade unionism has waxed and waned in the nation's political and moral imagination, among both devoted partisans and intransigent foes. From the steel foundry to the burger-grill, from Woodrow Wilson to John Sweeney, from Homestead to Pittston, Lichtenstein weaves together a compelling matrix of ideas, stories, strikes, laws, and people in a streamlined narrative of work and labor in the twentieth century. The 'labor question' became a burning issue during the Progressive Era because its solution seemed essential to the survival of American democracy itself. Beginning there, Lichtenstein takes us all the way to the organizing fever of contemporary Los Angeles, where the labor movement stands at the center of the effort to transform millions of new immigrants into alert citizen unionists. He offers an expansive survey of labor's upsurge during the 1930s, when the New Deal put a white, male version of industrial democracy at the heart of U.S. political culture. He debunks the myth of a postwar 'management-labor accord' by showing that there was (at most) a limited, unstable truce.Lichtenstein argues that the ideas that had once sustained solidarity and citizenship in the world of work underwent a radical transformation when the rights-centered social movements of the 1960s and 1970s captured the nation's moral imagination.
The labor movement was therefore tragically unprepared for the years of Reagan and Clinton: although technological change and a new era of global economics battered the unions, their real failure was one of ideas and political will. Throughout, Lichtenstein argues that labor's most important function, in theory if not always in practice, has been the vitalization of a democratic ethos, at work and in the larger society. To the extent that the unions fuse their purpose with that impulse, they can once again become central to the fate of the republic. "State of the Union" is an incisive history that tells the story of one of America's defining aspirations.
Nelson Lichtenstein is Professor of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of "Walter Reuther: The Most Dangerous Man in Detroit" and "Labor's War at Home".
Preface and Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 Chapter 1: Reconstructing the 1930s 20 Chapter 2: Citizenship at Work 54 Chapter 3: A Labor-Management Accord? 98 Chapter 4: Erosion of the Union Idea 141 Chapter 5: Rights Consciousness in the Workplace 178 Chapter 6: A Time of Troubles 212 Chapter 7: What Is to Be Done? 246 Notes 277 Index 323
| Erscheint lt. Verlag | 17.9.2003 |
|---|---|
| Reihe/Serie | Politics and Society in Modern America ; 21 |
| Zusatzinfo | 28 halftones |
| Verlagsort | New Jersey |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 152 x 235 mm |
| Gewicht | 510 g |
| Themenwelt | Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte |
| Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Kulturgeschichte | |
| Wirtschaft | |
| ISBN-10 | 0-691-11654-7 / 0691116547 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-691-11654-9 / 9780691116549 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
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