In Radical Unionism in the Midwest, 1900-1950 Rosemary Feurer examines the fierce battles between Midwestern electrical workers and bitterly anti-union electrical and metal industry companies during the 1930s and 40s. Organized as District 8 of the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers (UE) and led by open Communist William Sentner, workers developed a style of unionism designed to confront corporate power and to be a force for social transformation in their community and nation. Feurer studies District 8 through a long lens, establishing early twentieth century contexts for these conflicts. Exploring the role of radicals in local movement formation, Feurer argues for a "civic" unionism that could connect community and union concerns to build solidarity and contest the political economy. District 8's spirited unionism included plant occupations in St. Louis and Iowa, campaigns to democratize economic planning, and local strategies for national bargaining that were depicted as a Communist conspiracy by a corporate influenced Congressional committee in Evansville, Indiana. District 8 was destroyed through reactionary networks and the anti-Communist backlash of the mid-twentieth century, but Feurer argues that its history tells another side of the labor movement s formation in the 1930s and 40s, and can inform current struggles against corporate power in the modern global economy. A website with more photographs and documents is available at www.radicalunionism.niu.edu "

In Radical Unionism in the Midwest, 1900-1950 Rosemary Feurer examines the fierce battles between Midwestern electrical workers and bitterly anti-union electrical and metal industry companies during the 1930s and 40s. Organized as District 8 of the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers (UE) and led by open Communist William Sentner, workers developed a style of unionism designed to confront corporate power and to be a force for social transformation in their community and nation. Feurer studies District 8 through a long lens, establishing early twentieth century contexts for these conflicts. Exploring the role of radicals in local movement formation, Feurer argues for a "civic" unionism that could connect community and union concerns to build solidarity and contest the political economy. District 8's spirited unionism included plant occupations in St. Louis and Iowa, campaigns to democratize economic planning, and local strategies for national bargaining that were depicted as a Communist conspiracy by a corporate influenced Congressional committee in Evansville, Indiana. District 8 was destroyed through reactionary networks and the anti-Communist backlash of the mid-twentieth century, but Feurer argues that its history tells another side of the labor movement's formation in the 1930s and '40s, and can inform current struggles against corporate power in the modern global economy. A website with more photographs and documents is available at www.radicalunionism.niu.edu

The Routledge History of the Twentieth-Century United States is a comprehensive introduction to the most important trends and developments in the study of modern United States history. Driven by interdisciplinary scholarship, the thirty-four original chapters underscore the vast range of identities, perspectives and tensions that contributed to the growth and contested meanings of the United States in the twentieth century. The chronological and topical breadth of the collection highlights critical political and economic developments of the century while also drawing attention to relatively recent areas of research, including borderlands, technology and disability studies. Dynamic and flexible in its possible applications, The Routledge History of the Twentieth-Century United States offers an exciting new resource for the study of modern American history.

This book shows how a Jewish lawyer utilized his philosophy of prophetic Judaism (a belief in social justice) and his training as a lawyer to become the head of a trade union that formulated policies embodying these social beliefs, bringing many benefits to its members. In 1946, Ralph Helstein was the general counsel for the United Packinghouse Workers Union (UPWA), which had become a predominantly black worker organization. At the time there was a divisive left-right split in the union. As the only individual both sides trusted, Helstein was elected president of the union, thus beginning an era of positive change for the UPWA and its workers. Beyond Helstein's efforts for the UPWA, Marching with Dr. King: Ralph Helstein and the United Packinghouse Workers of America also examines the involvement of Helstein in the civil rights movement, his personal association with Martin Luther King, Jr., and how his actions as union president championed the rights of African Americans, women, and even an immigrant group outside the United States—the sugar workers in Puerto Rico. This text presents a unique perspective on the life of a labor leader, revealing the connection between Helstein's religious and philosophical ideas with his leadership of the UPWA union.

A provocative analysis of labor, globalization, and environmental harm by the award-winning historian and author of A History of America in Ten Strikes. In the current state of our globalized economy, corporations have no incentive to protect their workers or the environment. Jobs moves seamlessly across national borders while the laws that protect us from rapacious behavior remain bound by them. As a result, labor exploitation and toxic pollution remain standard practice. In Out of Sight, Erik Loomis—a historian of both the labor and environmental movements—follows a narrative that runs from the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City to the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory outside of Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 2013. He demonstrates that our modern systems of industrial production are just as dirty and abusive as they were during the Industrial Revolution and the Gilded Age. The only difference is that the ugly side of manufacturing is now hidden in faraway places where workers are most vulnerable. In this Choice Outstanding Academic Title, Loomis shows that the great environmental victories of twentieth-century America—the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the EPA—were actually union victories. Using this history as a call to action, Out of Sight proposes a path toward regulations that follow corporations wherever they do business, putting the power back in workers’ hands. “The story told here is tragic and important.” —Bill McKibben “Erik Loomis prescribes how activists can take back our country—for workers and those who care about the health of our planet.” —Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH)

This historical analysis of the 1937 Chicago Steel Strike demonstrates how it revealed systemic oppression and inspired the larger progressive movement. On Memorial Day 1937, thousands of steelworkers and labor rights supporters gathered on the Southeast Side of Chicago to protest Republic Steel. By the end of the day, ten marchers had been mortally wounded and more than one hundred badly injured, victims of a terrifying police riot that came to be known as the Memorial Day Massacre. In Blood on Steel, historian Michael Dennis identifies this tragic landmark in the fight for labor rights as a focal point in the larger movement for American equality during the New Deal. Dennis shows how the riot—captured on film by Paramount newsreels—validated the claims of labor activists and catalyzed public opinion in their favor. Senate hearings about the massacre revealed patterns of anti-union aggression among management, ranging from blacklists to harassment and vigilante violence. The following year, Congress would pass the Fair Labor Standards Act. Dennis’s wide-angle perspective reveals the Memorial Day Massacre as more than another bloody incident in the long story of American labor-management tensions. It was an all-too graphic illustration of the need for a broad-based social democracy movement.

Detroit's Cold War locates the roots of American conservatism in a city that was a nexus of labor and industry in postwar America. Drawing on meticulous archival research focusing on Detroit, Colleen Doody shows how conflict over business values and opposition to labor, anticommunism, racial animosity, and religion led to the development of a conservative ethos in the aftermath of World War II. Using Detroit--with its large population of African-American and Catholic immigrant workers, strong union presence, and starkly segregated urban landscape--as a case study, Doody articulates a nuanced understanding of anticommunism during the Red Scare. Looking beyond national politics, she focuses on key debates occurring at the local level among a wide variety of common citizens. In examining this city's social and political fabric, Doody illustrates that domestic anticommunism was a cohesive, multifaceted ideology that arose less from Soviet ideological incursion than from tensions within the American public.

This innovative study examines the development of institutional childcare from 1878 to 1929, based on a comparison of two "sister" orphanages in Pittsburgh: the all-white United Presbyterian Orphan's Home and the all-black Home for Colored Children. Drawing on quantitative analysis of the records of more than 1,500 children living at the two orphanages, as well as census data, city logs, and contemporary social science surveys, this study raises new questions about the role of childcare in constructing and perpetrating social inequality in the United States.

Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. The Conspiracy -- 2. From Red to Black -- 3. The Black International -- 4. Dynamite -- 5. Anarchists, Trade Unions, and the Eight-Hour Workday -- 6. From Eight Hours to Revolution -- Epilogue -- Notes -- Index.