State of the Union

A Century of American Labor


Cover of the book State of the Union by Nelson Lichtenstein, Princeton University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Nelson Lichtenstein ISBN: 9781400838523
Publisher: Princeton University Press Publication: October 26, 2012
Imprint: Princeton University Press Language: English
Author: Nelson Lichtenstein
ISBN: 9781400838523
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Publication: October 26, 2012
Imprint: Princeton University Press
Language: English

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.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

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.

More books from Princeton University Press

Cover of the book Towing Icebergs, Falling Dominoes, and Other Adventures in Applied Mathematics (New in Paperback) by Nelson Lichtenstein
Cover of the book Innovation and Its Discontents by Nelson Lichtenstein
Cover of the book The Milky Way by Nelson Lichtenstein
Cover of the book The Constitution of Ancient China by Nelson Lichtenstein
Cover of the book A Philosophy of Culture by Nelson Lichtenstein
Cover of the book Why Tolerate Religion? by Nelson Lichtenstein
Cover of the book Do Zombies Dream of Undead Sheep? by Nelson Lichtenstein
Cover of the book Why Philanthropy Matters by Nelson Lichtenstein
Cover of the book Kant's Philosophical Revolution by Nelson Lichtenstein
Cover of the book A Concise History of Solar and Stellar Physics by Nelson Lichtenstein
Cover of the book Traditional Chinese Architecture by Nelson Lichtenstein
Cover of the book Shaping Race Policy by Nelson Lichtenstein
Cover of the book Trees of Panama and Costa Rica by Nelson Lichtenstein
Cover of the book The Great American Mission by Nelson Lichtenstein
Cover of the book American Religion by Nelson Lichtenstein
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy