This pathbreaking study traces the rise--and subsequent fall--of the United Packinghouse Workers of America (UPWA). Roger Horowitz emphasizes local leaders and meatpacking workers in Chicago, Kansas City, Sioux City, and Austin, Minnesota, and closely examines the unionizing of the workplace and the prominent role of black workers and women in UPWA. In clear, anecdotal style, Horowitz shows how three major firms in U.S. meat production and distribution became dominant by virtually eliminating union power. The union's decline, he argues, reflected massive pressure by capital for lower labor costs and greater control over the work process. In the end, the victorious firms were those that had been most successful at increasing the rate of exploitation of their workers, who now labor in conditions as bad as those of a century ago. "The definitive study of unionism in the meatpacking industry for the period since the 1920's." -- James R. Barrett, author of Work and Community in the Jungle: Chicago's Packinghouse Workers, 1894-1922 A volume in the series The Working Class in American History, edited by David Brody, Alice Kessler-Harris, David Montgomery, and Sean Wilentz Supported by the Illinois Labor History Society

Collects nearly four decades' worth of writings by Detroit political and labor activist James Boggs.

In 1999, a seemingly incongruous collection of protestors converged in Seattle to shut down the meetings of the World Trade Organization. Union leaders, environmentalists dressed as endangered turtles, mainstream Christian clergy, violence-advocating anarchists, gay and lesbian activists, and many other diverse groups came together to protest what they saw as the unfair power of a nondemocratic elite. But how did such strange bedfellows come together? And can their unity continue? In 1972--another period of social upheaval--sociologist Colin Campbell posited a "cultic milieu": An underground region where true seekers test hidden, forgotten, and forbidden knowledge. Ideas and allegiances within the milieu change as individuals move between loosely organized groups, but the larger milieu persists in opposition to the dominant culture. Jeffrey Kaplan and Helene Loow find Campbell's theory especially useful in coming to grips with the varied oppositional groups of today. While the issues differ, current subcultures often behave in similar ways to deviant groups of the past. The Cultic Milieu brings together scholars looking at racial, religious and environmental oppositional groups as well as looking at the watchdog groups that oppose these groups in turn. While providing fascinating information on their own subjects, each essay contributes to a larger understanding of our present-day cultic milieu. For classes in the social sciences or religious studies, The Cultic Milieu offers a novel way to look at the interactions and ideas of those who fight against the powerful in our global age.

Counting the costs of whiteness in the American past and present.

This detailed study of the relationship between race relations and unionization in Chicago's meatpacking industry draws on traditional primary and secondary materials and on an extensive set of interviews conducted in the mid-1980s that explore subjective dimensions of the workers' experience. "An ideal case study to analyze one of the central problems in American labor history--the relation ship between racial identity and working class formation and organization." -- James R. Barrett, author of Work and Community in the Jungle: Chicago's Packinghouse Workers, 1894-1922 "Meticulously researched, grounded firmly in extensive oral history and archival sources, and carefully argued, Down on the Killing Floor will be indispensable reading for everyone interested in race and labor." -- Eric Arnesen, author of Waterfront Workers of New Orleans: Race, Class and Politics, 1863-1923 A volume in the series The Working Class in American History, edited by David Brody, Alice Kessler-Harris, David Montgomery, and Sean Wilentz

This volume takes an objective look at the white supremacy movement since WWII in the United States and Europe, and offers entries describing the people, groups, and themes that make up the radical racist right. Some of the entries have been written by movement activists, others by a variety of scholars. The second half of the volume includes primary documents of resources circulated within the movement, each prefaced by Kaplan (American studies, U. of Helsinki, Finland) and placed in historical and scholarly context. The material is at times offensive, but presented in an academic way. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR

Why do black families own less than white families? Why does school segregation persist decades after Brown v. Board of Education? Why is it harder for black adults to vote than for white adults? Will addressing economic inequality solve racial and gender inequality as well? This book answers all of these questions and more by revealing the hidden rules of race that create barriers to inclusion today. While many Americans are familiar with the histories of slavery and Jim Crow, we often don't understand how the rules of those eras undergird today's economy, reproducing the same racial inequities 150 years after the end of slavery and 50 years after the banning of Jim Crow segregation laws. This book shows how the fight for racial equity has been one of progress and retrenchment, a constant push and pull for inclusion over exclusion. By understanding how our economic and racial rules work together, we can write better rules to finally address inequality in America.