The New Men of Power  

The New Men of Power is a study of trade unions and their leaders, the American political scene, and the prospects for a radicalized democracy in the years just after the Second World War. When C. Wright Mills published the …



Living Wage 101  

Recently, after nine years of resolutely ignoring pleas, letters, e-mails, and the occasional phone call, I went to my first ever college alumni event. The reason was not a sudden burst of pride or the creeping nostalgia of age—rather it …



The Labor Movement: Is Anybody Home?  

Labor movements are remarkable modern institutions. All over the world, they have fought for what Marx called “the political economy of the working class.” They have transformed exploited workers into active citizens, and Social Darwinist battlegrounds into civilized and decent …



Images of Black History  

The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History (MAAH), which opened in Detroit in April 1997, has been acclaimed as the nation’s most important black history museum in numerous descriptive accounts, but, with a few notable exceptions, has not …



Class Doesn’t Trump Culture  

America’s Forgotten Majority: Why the White Working Class Still Matters by Ruy Teixeira and Joel Rogers Basic Books, 2000, 232 pp., $27 [contentblock id=17 img=gcb.png] The basic premise of Ruy Teixeira and Joel Rogers’s America’s Forgotten Majority: Why the White …



What Next for Labor Rights?  

What are the prospects for labor rights in the next four years? The question would seem to require some estimate, first, of what the Republicans intend and, second, of their capacity to do it. But current labor law is not …



Workers of the Diaspora  

Jewish Workers in the Modern Diaspora Nancy L. Green, ed. University of California Press, 1998, 256 pp., $14.95 [contentblock id=17 img=gcb.png] Ready-to-Wear and Ready-to-Work: A Century of Industry and Immigrants in Paris and New York by Nancy L. Green Duke …





Holes in the ‘New Economy’  

Growing Prosperity: The Battle for Growth with Equity in the 21st Century by Barry Bluestone and Bennett Harrison Century Foundation, 2000, 345 pp., $25 [contentblock id=17 img=gcb.png] Barry Bluestone and Bennett Harrison are two icons that progressive economists of my …



Union Town  

Working-Class New York: Life and Labor Since World War II by Joshua B. Freeman The New Press, 2000, 393 pp., $35 [contentblock id=17 img=gcb.png] I’m sitting here in sunny California poring over short-term rentals in downtown Manhattan. My wife stops …