Workers' Paradox

Workers' Paradox
Author: Ruth O'Brien
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
Total Pages: 340
Release: 1998
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780807847374

Reinterpreting the roots of twentieth-century American labor law and politics, Ruth O'Brien argues that it was not New Deal Democrats but rather Republicans of an earlier era who developed the fundamental principles underlying modern labor policy. By exam

Beyond Equality

Beyond Equality
Author: David Montgomery
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 556
Release: 1967
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780252008696

"For anyone who believes that there was no important labor movement before Roosevelt, or before Gompers, or before the Knights of Labor, this well-documented work should prove a shocker. And for those who look to the past for enlightenment to guide us through our troubled tomorrows, this book is a reservoir of historic information and insights." -- New Leader "Beyond Equality is a masterpiece. . . . A book of bold and brilliant originality, it is now shaping the perspective of a new generation of graduate students." -- David Brion Davis, author of The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture

Republicans and Labor

Republicans and Labor
Author: Robert H. Zieger
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Total Pages: 341
Release: 2021-10-21
Genre: History
ISBN: 0813186749

At no other time in American history had labor unrest been more evident than the period immediately after World War I. Robert H. Zeiger here recounts the labor problems that faced the Republican administrations of Presidents Harding and Coolidge—massive strikes, antiracial hysteria, and the hardening of class attitudes throughout the nation— and describes the programs and policies of Republican leaders—particularly those of Herbert Hoover—to solve them. Zeiger finds that while suspicion and animosity between the Republicans and the union leaders persisted, the rising prosperity of the nation, together with the adroit efforts of Hoover and his associates, tended to lessen the influence of extremists in both groups. Labor reached an accommodation of sorts with the Coolidge administration; and when, in 1928, Hoover defeated Al Smith, the substantial labor vote he received was among the factors that lent stature to his victory.

The Republican Workers Party

The Republican Workers Party
Author: F.H. Buckley
Publisher: Encounter Books
Total Pages: 168
Release: 2018-09-04
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1641770074

The Republican Workers Party is the future of American presidential politics, says F.H. Buckley. It’s a socially conservative but economically middle-of-the-road party, offering a way back to the land of opportunity where our children will have it better than we did. That is the American Dream, and Donald Trump’s promise to restore it is what brought him to the White House. As a Trump speechwriter and key transition advisor, Buckley has an inside view on what “Make America Great Again” really means—how it represents a program to restore the American Dream as well as a defense of nationalism rooted in a sense of fraternity with all fellow Americans. The call to greatness was a repudiation of the cruel hypocrisy of America’s New Class, the dominant 10 percent who deploy the language of egalitarianism while jealously guarding their own privileges. The New Class talks like Jacobins but behaves like Bourbons. Its members claim to support equality and social mobility, but resist the very policies that promote mobility and equality: a choice of good schools for everyone’s children, not just the well-to-do; a sensible immigration policy that doesn’t benefit elites at the expense of average Americans; and regulatory reform to trim back the impediments that frustrate competitive enterprise. It isn’t complicated. What’s been lacking is political will. This book pulls no punches in describing how liberals and conservatives had become indifferent to those left behind. On the left, identity politics offered an excuse to hate an ideological enemy. On the right, a tired conservatism defined itself through policies that callously ignored the welfare of the bottom 90 percent. Trump told us that both Left and Right had betrayed the American people, and his Republican Workers Party promises to renew the American Dream. Buckley shows how it will do so.

From Slavery to the Cooperative Commonwealth

From Slavery to the Cooperative Commonwealth
Author: Alex Gourevitch
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2015
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1107033179

This book reconstructs how a group of nineteenth-century labor reformers appropriated and radicalized the republican tradition. These "labor republicans" derived their definition of freedom from a long tradition of political theory dating back to the classical republics. In this tradition, to be free is to be independent of anyone else's will - to be dependent is to be a slave. Borrowing these ideas, labor republicans argued that wage laborers were unfree because of their abject dependence on their employers. Workers in a cooperative, on the other hand, were considered free because they equally and collectively controlled their work. Although these labor republicans are relatively unknown, this book details their unique, contemporary, and valuable perspective on both American history and the organization of the economy.

Beaten Down, Worked Up

Beaten Down, Worked Up
Author: Steven Greenhouse
Publisher: Knopf
Total Pages: 417
Release: 2019-08-06
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1101874430

“A page-turning book that spans a century of worker strikes.... Engrossing, character-driven, panoramic.” —The New York Times Book Review We live in an era of soaring corporate profits and anemic wage gains, one in which low-paid jobs and blighted blue-collar communities have become a common feature of our nation’s landscape. Behind these trends lies a little-discussed problem: the decades-long decline in worker power. Award-winning journalist and author Steven Greenhouse guides us through the key episodes and trends in history that are essential to understanding some of our nation’s most pressing problems, including increased income inequality, declining social mobility, and the concentration of political power in the hands of the wealthy few. He exposes the modern labor landscape with the stories of dozens of American workers, from GM employees to Uber drivers to underpaid schoolteachers. Their fight to take power back is crucial for America’s future, and Greenhouse proposes concrete, feasible ways in which workers’ collective power can be—and is being—rekindled and reimagined in the twenty-first century. Beaten Down, Worked Up is a stirring and essential look at labor in America, poised as it is between the tumultuous struggles of the past and the vital, hopeful struggles ahead. A PBS NewsHour Now Read This Book Club Pick

Grand New Party

Grand New Party
Author: Ross Douthat
Publisher: Anchor
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2008-06-24
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0385526695

In a provocative challenge to Republican conventional wisdom, two of the Right's rising young thinkers call upon the GOP to focus on the interests and needs of working-class voters.Grand New Party lays bare the failures of the conservative revolution and presents a detailed blueprint for building the next Republican majority. Blending history, analysis, and fresh, often controversial recommendations, Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam argue that it is time to move beyond the Reagan legacy and the current Republican power structure. With specific proposals covering such hot-button topics as immigration, health care, and taxes, Grand New Party shakes up the Right, challenges the Left, and confronts the changing political landscape.