There Is Power in a Union: The Epic Story of Labor in America

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From an award winning historian, a stirring and timely narrative history of American labor from the dawn of the industrial age to the present day From the textile mills of Lowell, Massachusetts, the first real factories in America, to the triumph of unions in the twentieth century and their waning influence today, the con test between labor and capital for their share of American bounty has shaped our national experience Philip Dray s ambition is to show us the vital accomplishments of organized labor in that time and illuminate its central role in our social, political, economic, and cultural evolution There Is Power in a Union is an epic, character driven narrative that locates this struggle for security and dignity in all its various settings on picket lines and in union halls, jails, assembly lines, corporate boardrooms, the courts, the halls of Congress, and the White House The author demonstrates, viscerally and dramatically, the urgency of the fight for fairness and economic democracy a struggle that remains especially urgent today, when ordinary Americans are so anxious and beset by eco nomic woes. Free Download [ There Is Power in a Union: The Epic Story of Labor in America ] Author [ Philip Dray ] For Kindle ePUB or eBook – kino-fada.fr There s a rumbling storm crawling up the spine of American history Here there be details that politicians, Wall Street bigwigs, and textbook writers on propaganda commission don t want you to know about It s history seen from the eyes of the middleman, the lower class, and all the fighters for economic reform that have been shunted by the armor of militant suppression The history of America is coated with the blood of its builders, not by the rhetoric of elitist figureheads that occupy the There s a rumbling storm crawling up the spine of American history Here there be details that politicians, Wall Street bigwigs, and textbook writers on propaganda commission don t want you to know about It s history seen from the eyes of the middleman, the lower class, and all the fighters for economic reform that have been shunted by the armor of militant suppression The history of America is coated with the blood of its builders, not by the rhetoric of elitist figureheads that occupy the White House A great and bloody civil war has been going on for decades, a subtle one You d be surprised how often union strikes and civil rights protests ended in violence provoked by jackhole authorities, not peaceful demonstrators The whole story of labor in America is here ba...We spend all the time complaining boo hoo the labor movement is dead, Reagan killed the labor movement , but from the vantage point of our lives, and the lives of our parents, we only can remember the golden age of the post war boom The actual history of the labor movement in the United States has been as bleak and as hard fought in almost every other time in our history as it is now We havein common with Wobblies than we do with ...Great book Traces the history of labor in America from the Lowell mills of the 1820s through the end of the twentieth century While it doesn t cover the current battles over collective bargaining rights for public employees it hints at the themes that will dominate this century globalization of industry and labor, the energy crisis, how unions can retain their relevance when they represent only 12 percent of the U.S workforce, and the movement by corporations to shift the burden of worker Great book Traces the history of labor in America from the Lowell mills of the 1820s through the end of the twentieth century Whi...Dray s book is a fantastic and extensive survey of the history of the American labor movement, in its traditional sense of paid workers organizing to better their conditions against the owners of capital The narrative mostly traces the heroes and flawed figures in labor unions and the repression from the forces of capital and allies within the state Dray argues that US labor history has always been an extended conversation between ideology of workers transforming the world and one of pure Dray s book is a fantastic and extensive survey of the history of the American labor movement, in its traditional sense of paid workers organizing to better their conditions against the owners of capital The narrative mostly traces the heroes and flawed figures in labor unions and the repression from the forces of capital and allies within the state Dray argues that US labor history has always been an extended conversation between ideology of workers transforming the world and one of pure pragmatism and bread butter issues, often swinging one wa...This is a great book I meant to read it when it came out but I was concerned that it would be dry and felt I already had a good understanding of the topic But I saw that it was an assigned book for my nephew Harry for his labor history class at Penn, so I thought I would give it a go I am very glad I did This is a superbly written book covering the early days of labor, the turn of the Century at Haymarket Cripple Creek, Lawrence Mass and the likes of mother Jones, Joe Hill and Big Bill This is a great book I meant to read it when it came o...An exhaustive and well written history of labor in America Dray does an excellent job illustrating the ups and downs mostly downs of labor in America Sympathetic to the plight of labor Dray illustrates how business owners used xenophobia, patriotism, th...There s Power in a Union the title taken from a popular union folk song is the extensively researched, exhaustively descriptive history of unions and the labor movement in the United States While this monolithic book is no easy read, long, complicated, and full of enough organization acronyms to make your head ache just try keeping IWW, AFL, ICO, and UAW straight, along with their founders and key players , it is worth the effort to understand just how hard the struggle w...I felt compelled to read up on my labor history following the recent and ongoing anti union initiatives in Wisconsin, Ohio, and other states across the nation Philip Dray has written a compelling history of the labor union movement that helps us to understand how vital it has been to the country and citizens everywhere I only hopeof those working for union representation will take the time to read this book As Dray observes in his concluding chapter, we need to treat seriously the I felt compelled to read up on my labor history following the recent and ongoing anti uni...Unions The good, the bad and the uglyThe good Minimum wage laws, maximum work hours laws, occupational safety, pensions, and .The bad Various degrees of racism among many unions, resting on their laurels after the 1950s, failure of industrial unions to cooperate with environmentalists and believing corporate lies while resisting such cooperation The AFL, post WWII, then the reunited AFL CIO being so anti Communist that it willingly let its outreach efforts in the developing world be Unions The good, the bad and the uglyThe good Minimum wage laws, maximum work hours laws, occupational safety, pensions, and .The bad Various degrees of racism among many unions, resting on their laurels after the 1950s, failure of industrial unions to cooperate with environmentalists and believing corporate lies while resisting such cooperation The AFL, post WWII, then the reunited AFL CIO being so anti Communist that it willingly let its outreach efforts in the developing world be co opted by the CIA Most unions knee jerk support of the Vietnam War.The ugly The degree of government oppression, from militia to regular Army to bad laws to even worse court rulings For example The supervisors can t unionize provision of Taft Hartley has been, along with complacency, one of the biggest factors in the decline of organized labor The government and general public s willingness to stereotype all unions as anarchic, Communist or both.That s all detailed in this book Even if you k...Philip Dray is a phenomenal writer and this masterpiece is one of the best books I ve ever read I clung to every word of Dray s prolific account of the labor movement in the United States With a commanding narrative voice, he takes you from the era in which the movement was burgeoning and barely coherent to the points when it became the solidified but embattled political institution that it is today He covered the place of unions in history and today fairly, from their strengths as va...

There Is Power in a Union: The Epic Story of Labor in America
  • English
  • 21 August 2018
  • Hardcover
  • 784 pages
  • 0385526296
  • Philip Dray
  • There Is Power in a Union: The Epic Story of Labor in America