Items related to Bridgeport's Socialist New Deal, 1915-36 (Working...
Synopsis
In November 1933, the Socialist Party of Bridgeport, Connecticut, won a stunning victory in the municipal election, putting slate roofer Jasper McLevy in the mayor's seat and nearly winning control of the city council. In probing the factors that led to this electoral victory and its continuation, Cecelia Bucki uncovers a legacy of activist unionism, business manipulation of local politics and taxes, and a growing debate over the public good that revealed how working people viewed their government and their own roles as citizens. A backdrop to the evolving national developments of the New Deal, this study stands at the intersection of political, labor, and ethnic history and provides a new perspective on how working people affected urban politics in the interwar era.
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Book Description
The Socialist party’s remarkable move from outsider critic to occupant of City Hall
Winner of the Homer D. Babbidge Prize of the Association for the Study of Connecticut History
In November 1933, the Socialist Party of Bridgeport, Connecticut won a stunning victory in the municipal election, putting slate roofer Jasper McLevy in the mayor's seat and nearly winning control of the city council. In Bridgeport’s Socialist New Deal, 1915-36, in paperback for the first time, Cecelia Bucki probes the factors that led to this electoral victory and its continuation, uncovering a legacy of activist unionism, business manipulation of local politics and taxes, and a growing debate over the public good. As a backdrop to the evolving national developments of the New Deal, this study stands at the intersection of political, labor, and ethnic history; illustrates the volatility of politics in the early depression years; and provides a penetrating new perspective on how working people affected urban politics in the inter-war era.
From the Inside Flap
"In this impressive new study of Bridgeport, Connecticut, from World War I through the Great Depression, Cecelia Bucki directs our attention to where we haven't looked before, or at least not for a long time: to politics at the local rather than the national level, to members of the AFL rather than the CIO, and to the Socialist Party rather than the New Deal Democrats. Under her skillful guidance, the exceptional case of Socialist Bridgeport sheds new light on the entire New Deal Era." -- Lizabeth Cohen, author of Making a New Deal: Industrial Workers in Chicago, 1919-1939
"Bridgeport was one of those American cities governed for many years by a Socialist mayor. In this meticulous study, Cecelia Bucki explains how that happened and what it reveals about New Deal politics. Her achievement is to extract from the relatively singular--Socialist regimes were not, after all, an American commonplace--broadly applicable insights into the embedded, little-understood structures of grassroots mobilization. Bucki's is a book to reckon with. Her findings are going to make life uncomfortable for historians bent on easy generalization about how ethnicity, class interest, and economic crisis intersected to bring forth the New Deal." -- David Brody, author of Steelworkers in America: The Nonunion Era
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherUniversity of Illinois Press
- Publication date2001
- ISBN 10 025202687X
- ISBN 13 9780252026874
- BindingHardcover
- LanguageEnglish
- Number of pages312
- Rating
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